The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, which is celebrating its silver jubilee from November 24 to 29, will have another feather in its cap by setting up a nuclear magnetic resonance facility in the silver jubilee year.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the silver jubilee celebrations, CCMB Director, Dr Lalji Singh, said that the MRI project would cost Rs 8 crore, which would be jointly funded by the Department of Biotechnology and CSIR.This project, which should have come up about a year ago as the proposal was submitted a couple of years ago, has been cleared now and it came as a silver jubilee gift, he said.

CCMB had also created an X-ray Christallography facility which would be inaugurated by the Director-General of CSIR, Dr R A Mashelkar, on 25 November, 2002, the second day of the celebrations. This facility would enable identification of structure of proteins, which in turn would help determine drugs for genetic problems. It would even provide a broad classification of enzymes.
CCMB would set up a 'Biological Containment Level 4'facility at Rs 50 crore to handle infectious diseases, the first of its kind in the country. It would focus on the identification of genes, which cause infectious diseases and methods to tackle them. Though the state government had approved it, a suitable land was not available. Osmania University had agreed to give one acre of land in front of CCMB, but it came under litigation. However, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, during his recent visit to CCMB, had directed the Vice-Chancellor to identify another plot and hand it over to the Institute, Dr Singh said.
Talking about the cloning of cheetah, which the Institute wanted to take up, Dr Singh said it failed to get either a cheetah or a living cell. According to him, cloning was not desirable for the survival of the species. It was advisable only if a species was on the verge of extinction. Though therapeutic cloning was advisable, even that was not allowed in the country, he said.

President APJ Abdul Kalam would be the chief guest at the Foundation Day celebrations Tuesday the 26th November. The Union Minister for Science and Technology Murli Manohar Joshi would also attend the programme. As part of the silver jubilee celebrations, the Institute is organizing a six-day symposium on " Current Excitement in Biology" from November 24 to 29 and will be attended by 600 delegates from India and abroad. It would also put up an exhibition by the PhD students displaying posters of research carried out by the Institute in the last one decade.A special exhibition of paintings and cultural programmes will be the other highlights of the celebrations.