India News | Biotech Centre's Campus to Be Major Facility: Union Minister

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 5 (PTI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the upcoming second campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) here would be developed as a major facility.

It would have translational applications of immunotherapy and development of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer.

Addressing the 13th general body meeting of the RGCB through video-conferencing, Vardhan said the centre's association with multiple cancer hospitals in Kerala was expected to facilitate advanced cell-based therapy against cancer at affordable costs. The country has demonstrated before the world its prowess in scientific and technological research, he said. "Our institutions have contributed in addressing the unprecedented challenge posed by COVID-19 by imbibing the spirit of AtmaNirbharata," the Minister said in a press release. The action taken report for 2019-20, placed before the general body, said a function would be organised to name the second campus as Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Diseases in Cancer and Viral Infection.

The function would take place on completion of the phase-1.

The BSL3-plus (bio-safety level) facility being established on the campus would support RGCB in undertaking natural product-based drug discovery using live virus and carry out research on any emerging pathogen requiring high containment.

"This facility will be a big boost to Kerala in managing highly pathogenic viral and bacterial diseases as currently there is no BSL3-plus facility in the state. This unique facility will also support their new research programme to develop new generation protein and nucleic acid-based vaccines," the release said.

A lead anti-cancer molecule discovered by the RGCB has been licensed to a multinational company and is in the final stages of pre-clinical testing at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, USA, it said. "It is also significant that these path-breaking R&D activities are taking place when the country has successfully rolled out one of historys largest vaccine outreach. This exercise has made it clear that the nation can take up scientific challenges, thanks to the dedication of our scientific community," the release quoted the Union Minister as saying. In his presentation, RGCB Director Dr Chandrabhas Narayana explained the proposed facilities on the second campus and said it would have a National Centre for Drug Target Design and Development (Therapeutic Antibodies and Biosimilars), National Centre for Molecular Medicine, RGCB spin-off companies and bio-incubators and new initiative in tumor immunology and immunotherapy with clinical centres of Kerala.

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