Pune, July 4: Bangalore-based biotech company Avesthagen Ltd, which is carrying out a large-scale study to decipher the riddle behind the Parsi-Zoroastrians’ longevity, has launched a Pune chapter and has appealed to members of the community to provide blood samples. The reason Parsis have been selected for the research is that they are a largely homogeneous community with a high degree of intra-community marriages. This would make it easier to identify any particular gene linked to the longevity.

The project will require blood samples across ages — from an eight-year-old to an octogenarian. Ruby Hall Clinic CEO Bhomi Bhote said that the hospital is one of the centres where members from the Parsi-Zoroastrian community can provide blood samples.

The project is a large-scale study that aims at probing the increased incidence of diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart related ailments, officials from Avesthagen Ltd told The Indian Express.

According to Avesthagen founder Villoo Morawala Patell, the project is biotechnology-driven and will aim to come up with therapies and diagnostic tools to understand linkages between genes and environmental factors.

“The comprehensive database arising out of the project will provide invaluable information on these linkages for all of humanity... The project will find application in disease prediction and accelerate the development of new therapies,” he said. Parsi-Zoroastrians, who now number about 69,000 in India, are an in-bred population resulting from the discouragement of inter-community marriages. Such populations are helpful in pinpointing inherited genes linked to diseases. “The aim is to collect blood samples from at least 2,000 of them,” said Bhote.

N Mistry, Director of the Pune-based Foundation for Research in Community Health, said there is a possibility of an overlap with genes from West Asia and since the Parsi community is a homogeneous one, it would be is easier to track any gene related to longevity.