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INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL / KARNATAKA: ARTS & CULTURE / PHOTOGRAPHY: Bengaluru’s 10-year-old Vihaan Talya Vikas Bags Best Award in ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) organised by the National History Museum, London

A total of 50,000 images were submitted, out of which top 100 were considered for the competition and 11 were chosen in different categories, with Vihaan winning the under-10 category award.

10-year-old Vihaan Talya Vikas from Bengaluru, was awarded the best photographer in his category at the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition held in London.

Organised by the Natural History Museum, London, the competition showcases the finest wildlife photography from around the world. The event is also considered as the ‘Oscars of Photography’. Vihaan’s photo of a spider along with Krishna’s carving clicked on the outskirts of the city and helped him bag the award.

Inspired by his father’s passion for wildlife photography, Vihaan said, “I am very happy and excited to receive this award. I like doing photography because it helps us think creatively and connect with nature.”


The competition this year saw submissions from 95 countries in different categories. A total of 50,000 images were submitted, out of which the top 100 were considered for the competition and 11 were chosen in different categories, with Vihaan winning the under-10 category award.

Vihaan’s image will be part of the WPY59 collection and will be presented in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum, which will tour around 25 venues across 4 continents to create awareness about the protection of wildlife.

A student of Kumarans School, Vihaan’s journey began at the age of 7, under the guidance of his father.


Dhritiman Mukherjee, Wildlife and Conservation Photographer and Competition Judge, said, “Vihaan’s image served the purpose of art, concept, conservation and science very nicely.” He also appreciated the young boy’s thought process behind it and the composition of the image.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL / KARNATAKA: TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OF MEDICAL RESEARCH: Sepsis Treatment SUR-101 Developed by Researchers in Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar licensed to Dutch Biotech firm SurvivX

The development of the treatment was announced by C-CAMP director Dr Taslimarif Saiyed at an event with Netherlands PM Mark Rutte last month.

A novel sepsis treatment, called SUR-101, developed collaboratively by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru, and the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, was licensed to Dutch biotech firm SurvivX in the presence of Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday.

The development of the technology, presently at the preclinical stage, was announced by Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, director-CEO of C-CAMP, at an event with Rutte on the latter’s visit to Bengaluru on the sidelines of the G20 summit last month.

Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency. It happens when an infection that a patient already has triggers a chain reaction throughout the body. According to C-CAMP, existing interventions for sepsis are found to be effective only at the very early onset of sepsis. By modulating the immune response, the current technology allows a longer time window for administering targeted interventions for sepsis.

“Sepsis is a worldwide challenge, with approximately 50 million cases and 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide, accounting for 20 per cent of all global deaths. The new compound, called SUR-101, is an immune-stimulating therapeutic in sepsis patients with signs of immune suppression. It could be the first step towards personalization and precision in sepsis medicine that has thus far been treated as a drug discovery problem. The technology presently at the preclinical stage is a discovery by a team of scientists led by Prof Ravindran Balachandran from ILS. It has been translated and co-developed by the translational research group of Dr Saiyed at C-CAMP,” said a media release from the Bengaluru centre, which is an initiative of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Earth Sciences.

Speaking on the licensing effort, the Dutch ambassador to India, Marisa Gerards, said, “Life sciences & health remains a priority sector for the bilateral cooperation between the Netherlands and India. We have successfully been working in this field for many years, and this new partnership is a great example of what India and the Netherlands can do together. Sepsis is an important global societal challenge, and it is in need of innovative solutions.”

“This is one of the first global technology transfers by C-CAMP of an academic invention developed exclusively in India. We are excited about the partnership with SurvivX, a biotech company in the Netherlands, in the antimicrobial resistance domain. This agreement will be a model in innovation-focused bilateral partnerships that addresses global issues together,” Dr Saiyed said.

SurvivX CEO Remko van Leeuwen said, “Our technology is based on a specific protein excreted by a tropical parasite: the filarial roundworm. The team in India made the remarkable observation that people infected by this parasite typically do not end up at an ICU unit when they develop sepsis. They started studies to find the cause of this protective effect that an infection with this worm seems to have.”

According to Leeuwen, the researchers discovered that a specific protein secreted by the worm was responsible for the effect. “We have already shown that the protein leads to a much better survival of mice with sepsis, confirming the protective effect seen in filaria patients. But mice are not human, Thus, SurvivX needs to show the safety and activity of the protein in humans before it can be tested as a novel therapeutic approach,” he added.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)