The Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), a premier research institute in the country, has set up an automated compound storage and retrieval system in its campus in Hyderabad.

The facility, which has been named as National Mol Bank (NMB), will be used for the storage of natural products, samples from organizations and institutes across the country. The system is designed to offer a storage capacity of 16 million samples in tubes and vials and will be capable of future seamless expansions.

According to the institute, the facility is first of its kind in the country and is similar to the NIH Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository in the USA.

“The IICT was chosen for setting up this national facility and will be used for storage of natural products, samples from organizations and institutes across the country”, said Dr J SYadav, director of IICT.  

The facility, funded by CSIR and Department of Science and Technology (DST) will showcase a high performance, high quality facility providing long term high integrity compound storage and automated compound retrieval. It will allow Indian scientists to screen small molecules in a high throughput fashion to identify hit molecules much more efficiently for various human ailments.

Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Prof. S K Brahmachari inaugurated the facility on January 18, 2011.