Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), a research institution under the Science, Technology and Environment Department (STED) of the State Government of Kerala will soon become an autonomous research institute under the Central Government.

The decision of the Central Government to takeover RGCB, one of the major centre under the State Government in the biotechnology research, has been declared by the P.Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, Government of India, in the budget proposals.

The preliminary works for bestowing autonomous power have started and the list of new governing body will be ready within a month, informed officials from RGCB. According to the officials, the takeover procedures will not be much delicate, as the centre already has an autonomous status under the state government.

They said that the new governing body would be presided over by a leading scientist, most probably from Kerala. Eminent scientists from all over the country, representatives from Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology of the Central Government would be the other members in the governing body. The centre already receives support from the Department of Biotechnology. The new development will help RGCB to attain global importance along with growth in research oriented on regional knowledge, hope the officials.

The institute, has six highly focused research departments working on medical biotechnology and development of transgenic plants, namely molecular medicine, molecular endocrinology and reproduction, molecular microbiology, cancer biology, neurobiology and plant molecular biology, and owns a laboratory complex of 1,10,000 sq. ft located at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

RGCB, lays emphasis on application oriented research as well as basic research that probe into the molecular basis of some selected cellular responses. The centre, which has been started as Centre for Development of Education, Science and Technology (C-DEST) in 1990, is conducting active research on tuberculosis, hepatitis C and cholera with emphasis on the development of detection systems for infectious diseases.