India’s first Bioengineering Centre for lung health inaugurated at IIT Hyderabad

IIT Hyderabad launched India’s first Bioengineering Centre of Excellence for lung health with Germany’s ILH, aiming to advance interdisciplinary research, innovation and Indo–German collaboration in lung disease treatment

Sangareddy: The Bioengineering Centre of Excellence, India’s first dedicated bioengineering-led centre focused on lung health, was established at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) campus on Wednesday. The centre has been set up in collaboration with the Institute for Lung Health (ILH), Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.

The Centre aims to respond to the growing national and global need for advanced lung health research and to drive interdisciplinary work at the interface of bioengineering and clinical medicine through a strong Indo–German partnership. It is jointly led by Renu John, faculty member at IITH, and Soni Savai Pullamsetti of ILH, Germany, as directors.

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Envisioned as a hub for international collaboration, the ILH–IITH Bioengineering Centre of Excellence will promote interdisciplinary research, talent development and innovation in lung healthcare. It will bring together expertise from IITH’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, which addresses key challenges in cardiovascular and pulmonary healthcare through research spanning biomedical engineering, nanobiotechnology, biomechanics, biomaterials and computational biology.

The Centre was inaugurated by AIG Hospitals Chairman D Nageshwar Reddy, Director of ILH and Chairman of the German Center for Lung Diseases (DZL), Germany, Werner Seeger, and IITH Director Prof BS Murty.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Nageshwar Reddy said India had several polluted cities and air pollution was directly affecting lung health. Stressing the importance of focused efforts in this area, he said there was a pressing need for intensive research on lung diseases.

Prof Werner Seeger said the Centre would mark a new era in lung health research by bringing engineering and medicine together to advance understanding and treatment of lung and vascular diseases. He said the collaboration aimed to accelerate discovery, enable translation and train the next generation of lung health engineers.

Prof Murty said the Centre reflected IITH’s commitment to addressing complex health challenges through interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

The inaugural programme concluded with plenary talks and round-table discussions by experts from clinical and interdisciplinary fields on lung disease and engineering-led solutions.