The genesisof the institute was mooted in 2005 as a Super Speciality Hospital with topnotch patientcare facilities for advanced training in certain disciplines of Medical and Paramedical Sciences. The proposal never took off, and by 2010, the plan was changed to initiate an IUCBR along with the Super Speciality Hospital, with the goal to develop a modern facility for a high standard of biomedical research. The long-term objective is to address changing biomedical research needs of emerging health problems in Kerala and at the national level, and to establish facilities with global competence. Keeping in mind the goal of this upcoming Institute it is envisaged to provide advanced healthcare research requirements by establishing modern facilities with an objective to contain and understand the molecular pathology of diseases that are not given enough attention, and health problems apparently emerging from environmental, genetic and epigenetic causes. Advanced, innovative research in these areas is encouraged to develop the biomedical resources, to improve knowledge-base and to guarantee our competence towards disease control and prevention in the State and the Nation.
Facilities are established to investigate pathophysiology of debilitating geriatric diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, developmental disabilities and the regional outbreak of new and fatal communicable diseases. A most advanced animal house is under construction, where traditional and individually ventilated caging systems for housing wild-type and transgenic laboratory animals. Other areas of focus for clinical and basic research include diseases that are hitherto attended trivially, immunological issues, life-style diseases and novel drug and diagnostics development. The institute aims to conduct state-of-the-art investigations to understand molecular pathology of such disorders, develop diagnostics and devise novel strategies to support efficient management and treatment of these diseases. Capabilities for these research areas are developed to meet the challenges of the present-day health situations. We have adapted, and plan to devise and develop antigen-antibody- and PCR-based diagnostics/assays to suit local infectious disease/clinical conditions. The Institute’s another major plan is to utilize the diverse and vast resources of endemic medicinal plants of Kerala for modern drug discovery research.
The IUCBR&SSH shall conduct PhD programs in Biomedical Research and award degree through Mahatma Gandhi University or any other relevant institution. The Institute is currently hiring experts in various fields of biomedical research, and acquiring state-of-the-art research facilities including a modern animal house, clinical research materials including transgenic cell lines and animals, high impact medical research journals and books, and applying for grant-in-aid project funds to various public and private funded agencies.
Kochupurackal P Mohanakumar, PhD
FNASc, FAScT, FIAN
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