The Genome Foundation will soon receive Rs 35 lakh as grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for taking up the epidemiological study project. The key role of the Foundation is to engage in various forms of genetic screening for the prevention of genetic diseases.

In this regard, the satellite diagnostic centre will serve the rural community by creating awareness among them on several prevailing genetic diseases and also provide available cure and counselling as part of the Genome Foundation goal of reducing suffering from such debilitating diseases. Its first such centre has already been established in Kalawari village in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, which will commence operations in June this year.

The Hyderabad-based Genome Foundation has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Kolar-based Sri Devaraj Urs University to open a satellite diagnostic centre that would cater to the needs of rural people in Karnataka.

It will impart training in modern diagnostic techniques and providing treatment and counselling for debilitating diseases.

The MOU was signed by Dr Lalji Singh, managing director, Genome Foundation and Dr S Chandrashekar Shetty, vice chancellor, Sri Devaraj Urs University vice-chancellor in the presence of Member of Parliament RL Jalappa who is also the president of the University. The MoU was inked at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology campus at Hyderabad. Dr Singh is also the director of CCMB.

Under the MOU, the university would provide land to the foundation and also create necessary amenities for the proposed diagnostic centre. The foundation in turn would impart training to people in modern techniques of biochemical chromosomal and molecular diagnostics. The entire process is expected to be completed in the next 18 months.

Further, the Foundation is aiming to establish various such branches across the country to make available its services to the rural masses. Another diagnostic centre would be set up on the campus of Dhantewada Agriculture University in Gujarat for which the University's management has agreed to allocate land and necessary funds for infrastructure development. This centre will serve the needs of the large tribal population in the region.

In addition, the Genome Foundation is setting up its main diagnostic centre on a 4.18 acre site at Medipally village on the outskirts of Hyderabad. We plan to open regional centres in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai besides expanding our operations across the country to cover every district over the next few years, informed Dr Singh.

The problem however was non-availability of trained manpower. We shall first train people at our main centre coming up here and then take up the expansion work related to other centres, he said. .

Dr Shetty said they would now take up full-scale research work with the co-operation of the Genome Foundation. "We want to make it a mass movement by involving people and cater to their healthcare needs," he said.