IIT-M gets new research facility

CHENNAI: A new research centre facility was inaugurated at the Biotechnology Department block at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Monday.Block-2 of Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Department of Biotechnology, IIT-M was inaugurated by Jyoti Mehta of Mehta in the presence of Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-Madras.

The building was sponsored by the Family Foundation. The building houses facilities such as Animal House and the National Cancer Tissue BioBank (NCTB). The centre will also house Indo-German Sustainability Centre.The NCTB, is a joint initiative of Department of Science and Technology and IIT-M.

It will collect cancer tissue samples from patients diagnosed with cancer. The facility will provide researchers quality cancer tissues and the patient date in order to facilitate cancer research that will lead in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The Animal House is mainly for research in medical biotechnology, specifically for cancer, cardiovascular diseases, HIV, tuberculosis and stem cell biology.Speaking at the event, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, who was appointed as WHO Deputy Director General recently said, ICMR will release the diseases burden study in November. The data is expected to show that suicide is the major cause of death in the age group of 15-29. The study will help to do micro planning in the states on health. The mortality rate due to cardiovascular, cancer and chronic lung diseases, and injuries have become high. There is transition change from the State to State in the disease burden, she added.