Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, who is the Ursula Zoellner professor of cancer research, University of Cambridge and director, Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit, said that, "Having originally trained and practiced as a physician in India, I am delighted that the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, will be supporting this exciting new initiative. The excellence of my colleagues in Bangalore, and the
terrific research environment they have created, inspires confidence that we can work together not only to improve our fundamental understanding of the cellular abnormalities that cause human diseases like cancer but also to translate this information for the benefit of patients."

Professor K VijayRaghavan, acting director, inStem, and director, National
Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), said that, "inStem is taking a new and adventurous path of collaborative, team-driven efforts to address the most challenging of biomedical problems. The NCBS-inStem campus provides an ideal intellectual environment for this collaboration with Cambridge to succeed. Ashok Venkitaraman is a world-leader in his area and we are delighted to work with him and Sir Leszek."