Biotechnology is set to drive the evolution of personalised medicine, say experts

With the Centre announcing a massive investment of ₹10,000 crore in the Union Budget 2026-27 for the biotechnology sector, India is poised to become a global biopharma manufacturing hub, panelists at a webinar on “Biotech Education in Personalised Medicine” said on Sunday.

The aim is to focus on boosting the production of biologics and biosimilars through a new initiative called the Biopharma Shakti. This will be a huge space available to students who are planning to seek out careers in biotechnology, they added.

The timing is perfect and biotechnology is a stable and promising career because healthcare demand is always growing, and government support and investment are available along with strong opportunities in Indian and global job markets, said Meenakshi Sinha, director at Cipla, lead advanced therapies and chief of staff to Global CEO & MD.

She was speaking at the webinar jointly organised by the Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai and The Hindu as part of the new series “Biotechnology: Role in Industry 5.0 Sustainable Future Pathways”. The series aims to highlight the transformative role of biotechnology across healthcare, agriculture, environmental solutions, and research-led innovation.

S. Shridevi, Professor and Deputy Director, Centre for Neuroinformatics, VIT, Chennai, talked about core technologies such as generative, multi-modal and reinforcing AI and deep and machine learning that were powering drug discovery. She said medical treatments were undergoing paradigm shift from reactive to proactive and standardised to individualised treatments based on genetic, metabolic, lifestyle, season, region, and ethnic profile of people.

“That is why biotechnology education is fast evolving and integrating genomics, bioinformatics, data since and clinical practice to prepare professionals for this transforming landscape of personalised medicine, based on genetic profiles of people,” she said.

New programme at VIT

G. Jayaraman, Professor and Dean, School of Bio Sciences & Technology, VIT, Chennai, announced the launch of a new biotechnology programme for the academic year 2027 at VIT, Chennai that will introduce innovative and specialised strategies to make students industry-ready. He said bioinformatics and computational biology, along with programming and large datasets analysis, would play a key role in the development process of drugs in the future.

Parul Ganju, scientist-entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Ahammune Biosciences, highlighted how COVID-19 was the biggest game-changer in recent times, with vaccines and drugs saving millions of lives. “Science shapes our lives,” she said, “and biotechnology is now transforming human-centric innovations and sustainability.”

Ms. Shridevi said technological integration involves the use of Artificial Intelligence to design drug combinations.

Tailoring healthcare is a promising idea which has been effective in cancer and autoimmune diseases so far. But in the coming years, biotechnology is set to drive the evolution of personalised medicine by facilitating precise diagnosis, targeted therapies, and optimised drug selection and dosage, the panellists said.

(To watch the webinar visit the YouTube link: https://newsth.live/THVITBPY)