The Indian Institute of Science and Ignite Life Science Foundation announced that they have joined hands with Indegene, a digital-first, life sciences commercialization company, to advance scientific discoveries in India. Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide. As the world's population ages, the burden of these diseases is likely to become more prevalent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), neurodegenerative diseases will become the second leading cause of death worldwide by 2040, necessitating the requirement of effective treatment and preventative strategies to alleviate the global burden. Emerging studies have shown that ferroptosis, a newly identified form of cell death characterized by iron- dependent accumulation of lipid peroxides, plays a key role in the pathological cell death associated with diverse neurodegenerative diseases such as traumatic brain injury, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and various cardiovascular diseases. Thus, inhibition of ferroptosis offers a promising therapeutic opportunity to treat many neurological diseases.

In humans, the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) can directly detoxify toxic lipid hydroperoxides using glutathione as a cofactor, thereby preventing ferroptosis. The lab at IISc is focused on the development of novel small molecules and nanomaterial-based functional mimetics of GPX4, which can inhibit ferroptosis and thereby provide protective mechanisms against the above-mentioned diseases. As the lab is a drug discovery lab, there is a need to screen many molecules to identify the lead compounds, which involves multiple screening systems.