The department of biotechnology (DBT), government of India, has selected the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to undertake exhaustive research on biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The project is part of DBT's national research programmes. The project has received funding to the tune of Rs. 15 crore for a five-year period.

The main objective of the research, which is a multi department programme involving molecular biophysics, micro biology & cell biology and biochemistry departments of the IISC, is to deviate from the usual drug discovery process, instead focus on biology of genes of Mycobacterium and come up with data on genes specific to tuberculosis that is not humans, Dr K Muniyappa, professor and chairman department of biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science told Pharmabiz.com

Currently, there is resurgence in the interest of tuberculosis research in the country, which is attributed to the increasing number of drug resistant tuberculosis and HIV Mycobacterium tuberculosis cases. It is for the first time that scientists from IISc are deviating from the standard process of drug development to work specifically on biology, informed Dr Muniyappa.

The programme essentially deals with the understanding of biology of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genes and once that is achieved it could possibly help the IISc team to identify a potential target for a novel vaccine or a drug to tackle the dreaded disease that is affecting an increasing number of people in the country. "The way of understanding biology is some thing new and different which could be a potential drug target," he explained.

Once the study on the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is complete, it could open up the possibility of conducting research on primates and after the hypothesis is derived it could then go on human trials, which is the normal process in drug discovery, said Dr. Muniyappa.

Currently, the research project has no industry component and involves only IISc, which was selected for the programmes after a tender application, he said. Although, there are a handful of tuberculosis programmes going on in the country with an institute-industry tie-up for tuberculosis, these are mostly dealt only with particular individual scientists.

The DBT tuberculosis biology research programme is now 18-months old and Dr. Muniyappa said the project has taken off well but refused to give more details. "It is difficult for me to predict the duration at this stage and ascertain the findings of research, however the project time frame provided by DBT is for five years. Every research project has certain objectives to be achieved and my team will have to strive to accomplish it. Right now the objective is to understand the biology of tuberculosis and by the fifth year, we will be able to identify the targets," he stated.