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February 8, 2010

Lakshmi, a 28-year-old woman from Guntur finds it hard to forget June 19, 2009. That was the day she became a victim of an acid attack. Her face was burnt and the eye damaged. Unless she manages a cornea donation, her loss is likely to be permanent. For Lakshmi and others like her, the work that is being done in L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, can mean a rescue from blindness. If the Eye Institute keeps to its path of progress in stem cell research, Lakshmi could grow her cornea back. “We have tackled almost 600 such cases using stem cells from corneal epithelium,” says D. Balasubramanian, director of research, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. A combination of factors have made India one of the hotbeds of stem cell research in the world, with both the government and private firms working in very interesting areas to win the sweepstakes of life as it were.