A National Translational Institute will be established at Beebinagar in Nalgonda district, near Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 1000 crore, according to official sources. The Andhra Pradesh government has identified 150 acre land for the establishment of the institute.

The focus areas of the Institute will be biological research, especially cell biology, developmental biology, stem cell biology, cancer biology, RNAi screening, etc. The Institute will give a boost to India's image as an emerging hub of biotech and pharma research.

The modern institution and the associated medical school will anchor the application of knowledge of modern biology into clinical care. "It will also take up collection and analysis of large amounts of clinical data, development of personalised medicine, molecular diagnostics and design and development of targeted delivery systems," officials pointed out.

On the laboratory front, the institute will match its counterparts in the US. It will have the latest tools with a budget of Rs 300 crore in addition to Rs 300 crore earmarked for hospital equipment. The laboratory equipment would be sufficient to over 500 scientific personnel, the scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said.

Speaking on the project, CCMB director Dr Lalji Singh, said, "India has over 4,694 anthropologically well-defined populations. We need to leverage this as it can provide access to vital research for studying gene-environment interactions in relation to a disease and developing personalised medicine".

The Union government had approved the plan for setting up the institute and released the funds. The establishment was delayed because of the delay in allotting the land. The government at first allotted land in the phase III of the Genome valley for the institute. But the scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)found the land unfit as part of it consisted of hills and the land itself was uneven.

On being apprised of the opinion of the scientists, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy directed the Nalogonda district Collector to allot 150 acre plot for the institute. The Nalgonda district administration may notify the land allotment in a few days to come, the officials said.

Once the institute becomes operational, the newly founded Genome Foundation, promoted by the CCMB director Dr Laljit Singh would be linked to it. The Foundation will provide network throughout the country by establishing laboratories in rural areas to detect and find therapies for "peculiar genetic disorders" afflicting the people in rural India.

The State government speeded up the allotment of the land for the institute because of the possibility of it being shifted to another State if land identification is delayed.