News

St. John’s Research Institute (SJRI) in collaboration with QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane, Australia, has secured funding under the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).  The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, will be funding SJRI in India, for this collaboration aimed to pioneer virus-specific T-cell (VST) therapy research.

The Indian arm of this research will be led by Professor Alok Srivastava, Head of the Haematology Research Unit, St. John’s Research Institute (SJRI) with Professor Annapurna Vyakarnam, Adjunct Professor, Scientific Lead of the Human Immunology Laboratory, Division of Infectious Diseases, SJRI, along with their transplant colleagues from the St. John’s Medical College Hospital.

Professor Srivastava is a Distinguished clinician scientist and global expert in translational haematology and cell and gene therapies. He has successfully led the world’s first lentiviral vector gene therapy for haemophilia clinical trial in India. 

Professor Annapurna Vyakarnam is a Professor of Microbial Immunology, Kings College London and a Distinguished Scientist in Human Immunology with an affiliation as Adjunct Professor at SJRI. She has set up a state of the art human immunology laboratory at SJRI focussed on training next generation immunologists working to understand T-cell immunity and biology across disease spectrums.

Professor Srivastava and Professor Vyakarnam will work together to adapt virus-specific T-cell (VST) therapy protocols specifically for the Indian patient population.

The SJRI team will work in close coordination with Professor Rajiv Khanna, a Distinguished Scientist at QIMR Berghofer and Head of the Tumour Immunology Laboratory. Professor Khanna’s internationally recognized work in human immune regulation provides the foundation for the translation of complex science into effective clinical therapies.

This partnership will drive clinical advancement by expanding cellular immunotherapy applications for Indian patients and enhancing treatment access for Australians of South Asian descent. Furthermore, the collaboration aims to stimulate economic growth by accelerating industry investment in India’s biotechnology and immunotherapy sectors.

This research represents a powerful synergy between Australian biotechnology innovation and Indian clinical and basic science expertise, aiming to improve outcomes for transplant recipients.