PIO doctor to open application of stem cell research in Nitte

MANGALURU: UK-based orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Anand A Shetty will start a clinical application of stem cell research in the city along with Nitte University. This will help in curing cancer and other related ailments.

Dr Shetty, who hails from Asode near Koteshwara in Udupi district, was honoured with the ‘Outstanding Clinical Excellence’ award by the UK’s House of Lords this year. Dr Shetty is winner of a host of awards including the prestigious Hunterian Surgical Medal and Hunterian Professorship for 2017 awarded by the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his research on stem cells in particular cartilage repair. Only four Indians have received this award so far.

A knee surgeon and director of stem cell research at Canterbury Christ Church University, Dr Shetty’s main interest lies in stem cell research, cartilage transplant, accelerated bone healing, and robotics in minimally invasive surgery.

In an exclusive tete-a-tete with TOI, Shetty spoke about his future plans for India especially the coastal city. “I began my research on stem cells around three decades ago when it was still in its very nascent stage. I got into cartilage and bone repair area. The biggest breakthrough was in 2000, where we did the first bone transplant surgery in the UK. To get such facility to India, with help of Nitte University, we set-up a multi crore facility in Deralakatte campus three years ago and a similar lab set-up in Hubballi for Dharmasthala hospital,” explained Dr Shetty.

He adds in the second phase his team wants go for cloning. “We want to clone high-milk yielding cow and pig for meat production. To start the process, we want to have clinical application in five years or by 2020 in Mangaluru,” he asserted.

Indian physicians, Dr Shetty says are most respected and trusted in the UK. If a British citizen has a health issue, he first tries to see an Indian doctor. “Racism did exist when I first entered the profession the 1980s. It changed in 1996 when the Labour government came to power,” he adds.

Apart from his surgical innovations, Dr Shetty is also the first surgeon to use robotics in arthroscopic knee surgery and gel-based cartilage repair surgery in the UK.