RGCB gets 20 acres at Akkulam

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After many a promise regarding land for expansion at various places in the city suburbs that were never realised, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) here has been allotted 20 acres of land at Akkulam. This land is adjacent to the ones occupied by the HLL Lifecare and the Indian Air Force.As part of the expansion activities, the RGCB would now establish an Interdisciplinary Innovative Centre (IIC) at Akkulam. ‘’It will be a unique knowledge centre and hub for mid and high-level innovation founded on deep and advanced-level technical platforms that will seed growth and innovation,’’ said RGCB director M Radhakrishna Pillai. It may be recalled that RGCB was initially promised land at Vellayani, but the acquisition ran into rough weather. Though land at certain areas in Nedumangad, Vithura and then latest at Muttathara were considered for expansion of the institute, none of these had materialised. The major aim of the IIC would be to evolve itself into a national hub for bioengineering, cancer vaccines and immunology. The IIC would also focus on diagnostics for cancer and infectious diseases for sustaining and improving the country’s health care system. Both these will make use of molecular biology, nanosciences and delivery systems for better creation of  accurate diagnostics and drug delivery.‘’This would eventually help to develop better diagnostic and prophylactic methods and modalities for treatment of cancer, infectious diseases as well as provide spice farmers better options for disease resistant crops,’’ said Radhakrishna Pillai. The IIC would provide a state- of- the-art research facility providing all pre-clinical, analytical, toxicological and biological assays to validate a biotech or biological product. ‘’Besides, we are willing to share technology facilities with investors, entrepreneurs, biotech and bio-pharma companies, for a seamless interaction between industry and academic institutions. They can set up business development incubators for products based on biotechnology,’’ said Radhakrishna Pillai. Thus the IIC will help promote commercially viable biotechnology enterprises with the aid of Incubation centres and technology transfers as well as the unique ‘Test and Prove’ facility of RGCB. RGCB’s Biotech Test and Prove Platform will be a major resource for the development of Biotech products and processes, especially for individual researchers and small and medium entities. This advanced facility, accredited to national and international agencies, will facilitate bench-to-bedside transfer of newly discovered or indigenously developed biotech products and processes. This platform will address such issues as characterisation of purity and stability of new biotech products, quality testing of diagnostic kits, safety assessment of biotechnology  products, including testing for presence of undesirable or contaminating micro organisms, sterility testing, toxicity testing in small animals such as mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. It will also provide bioinformatic support, patent search as well as patent filing.The extension centre of RGCB, expected to come up by 2013, will also impart international quality biotechnology education and training and generally contribute to the development of biotechnology in the country.