Strongly believing that research needs to travel from “bench to bed” and back again to enable basic scientists both to provide research for the improvement of patient care and to address clinicians’ problems, the scientists were in Pune on Wednesday to launch their two year project on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and study rural homes in Vadu.

The Rs 2 crore-project has been jointly undertaken with the Chest Research Foundation and KEM hospital’s Vadu Rural Health Programme, says Anthony Newman Taylor, head of the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) at Imperial College London.

Peter J Barnes, a leading expert on asthma and professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute along with Sir Malcolm Greene, former head of the NHLI, and Ajit Lalvani, head of the Tuberculosis Immunology group, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of London are part of the team who are visiting Pune.

Barnes, who has been listed as number 40 in the world’s top 50 most cited scientists according to the journal Science Watch told The Indian Express that COPD among non-smokers was poorly studied so far. Ongoing research has shown that indoor air pollution can be killing and it is not just the smoker who is affected by COPD.

Dr Sundeep Salvi, director of CRF said that it is commonly believed that 90 per cent of the people who are affected by COPD are smokers. But our research clearly indicates that one does not have to be a smoker to be infected.