The Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility Centre (BIFC) of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) at the Presidency College in Chennai has reached an agreement with the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, Chennai for a collaborative effort to the application of bioinformatics in the production of anti- viral vaccines.

The DBT at the Presidency College is now engaged in the production of four types of anti-viral drugs for the diseases chikungunya, chickenpox, dengue and HSV2 virus that causes sexually transmitted diseases, said Dr S Rajarajan, head, research department of microbiology.

As per the agreement, the virology department of the King Institute will provide facility for hands on training in imparting knowledge to students, research scholars and staffers on bioinformatics with special emphasis on virology. There will be training on cultivation of viruses and production of vaccines for viral infection.

The duration of the project is initially for a period of five years which can be extended by the mutual consent of the department heads.

Dr Rajarajan said in the MoU they have clearly mentioned that any significant development in technology developed out of co-operative efforts would be the right of both the partners. However, any important development in technology through external funded projects, will be bound by the regulations of funding agencies and the principal investigators involved in the project. He further clarified that both the institutes have agreed that they should keep information and data collected completely secret provided that the right to transfer the technology would rest with in general and as per the regulation of funding agencies for the funded projects.

The microbiology department of the college is offering software called Bio Protein Workbench, a facility that allows research scholars and students to work with the genetic sequence of any organism. "The workbench comes in useful when researchers want to find new drugs that are safer and more effective against diseases than existing ones. Our research team is trying to find anti-viral drugs for HSV2 virus, chikungunya, dengue and chickenpox," he told Pharmabiz.