The Indian Institute of Science's Division of Biological Sciences has identified areas like infectious diseases and Genomics as priority areas to pursue future advanced research to develop solutions for containing infectious diseases and develop vaccines.

The division has embarked three major programmes in the areas of Basic Biology for Microbial Pathogens, Molecular Diversity & Design and Genomics & Proteomics. The first programme includes work on different aspects of Tuberculosis, Japanese Encephalitis, Hepatitis, Rabies, Malaria and Diarrhoea. In tune with the focus on infectious diseases, a new Centre for Infectious Diseases has been set up with disease containment facilities and Bio-safety level 3 (or P3) laboratories. A Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standard lab already exists at the centre and is utilized for breeding special strains of immuno-compromised mice.

The Division has been granted a funding of around Rs 25 crore for five years by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, between 2002 to 2007 for research programmes and upgrading its core facilities.

“The grants have allowed us to acquire sophisticated equipment and other research material,'' stated Prof. D Narasimha Rao, Chairman, Division of Biological Sciences and Professor, Department of Biochemistry. He is currently engaged in basic research to understand how DNA binding proteins search for their target sequences and carry out different kinds of chemistries using protein chemistry and protein engineering methods.

The research work in the 85-year old Biochemistry department, which is the oldest in the Division, includes molecular biology, molecular genetics, developmental biology, proteins and enzymes, immunology and plant biology. Besides the Biochemistry department, the division includes Departments of Microbiology and Cell Biology (MCBL), Molecular Biophysics (MBU), Molecular Reproduction and Developmental Genetics (MRDG), Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) and Centre for Animal Facility (CAF). A 55-member faculty, each having about five students under them, undertake research activities. The MCBL department emphasizes its research priorities on problems related to infectious diseases of bacterial and viral origin in humans and animals while the MRDG activities are directed in the area of reproductive biology, development biology and genetics.

On the other hand, the main themes of research activities in the MBU are concerned with structure, co-formation and interactions of bio-molecules. The CES concerns itself with research in the areas of biological diversity, social behaviour, behavioural ecology, climatic change and tropical forests.

“Our research programmes are clearly academic with a mutual interest to solve a particular problem,'' said Prof. Rao. In the last 5-7 years, several faculty members have been collaborating with the industry.

The institute is also carrying out research under the Indo-German, Indo-French and Indo-Norwegian programmes with funding from the collaborating countries. These programmes are in biotechnology, vaccines, Bioinformatics and computational Genomics. Research also gets funding from organizations like Departments of Biotechnology (DBT), Science and Technology (DST) and Atomic Energy (DAE), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), apart from foreign aid like National Institute of Health grants and Wellcome Trust.