chennai its an unlikely partnership a cardiothoracic surgeon and a mechanical engineer whose forte is designing tyres but the two have teamed up and cracked a problem that has puzzled cardiologists across the globe for decades how the heart valve actually works and like dr kr balakrishnan and engineer r krishnakumar there are many nonmedical professionals working with trained doctors to find simple yet ingenious solutions and do applied research in a nation bogged down by financial and other constraintsin the last decade mechanical engineers at technical institutes researchers in leather institutes professors of physics mathematicians and statisticians have been coauthors of research papers in reputed medical journals while some have done pathbreaking work on human anatomy others have helped develop artificial skin bones and even teeth and the story of nobel laureate venki ramakrishnan who graduated in physics but worked in biology and won a nobel for chemistry is just added inspiration for these pioneersseven years ago when chennaibased cardiothoracic surgeon dr balakrishnan was operating on an infant he wondered why artificial heart valves were not as good as the real ones later that evening he met mechanical engineer krishnakumar who was designing tyres at the indian institute of technologymadras iitm the two began chatting and over the next few months krishnakumar created computer models that changed the way cardiologists thought heart valves worked we imagined that heart valves open when blood rushes in the models and principles of mechanics showed that the valves open long before the blood reaches them thats when i realised why artificial valves arent as good all of them wait for the blood to push them open now were in the process of developing prototypes to mimic the real valves says dr balakrishnanacademicians are all for these crossdisciplinary collaborations as it gives india a chance to showcase its talent