Centre to establish Biological Research Institute to set standards for analytical tools

Government is seriously considering setting up of a Biological Research Institute (BRI) to develop methodologies and set standards for optimal and efficient use of sophisticated equipments deployed by various research and medical organisations, said Dr B Suresh, President, Pharmacy Council of India. Setting standards for analytical tools and methodologies to assess quality of drugs is one of the challenges in producing quality medicines. The establishment of the BRI will solve this kind of issues, he added. The PCI president was inaugurating the Indo-US Flow Cytometry Workshop at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai. Dr Suresh said the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission is looking at the latest technologies, equipments and tools available and in use to ensure quality of medicines.  Among tools, flow cytometry will be of great use in studying cell particles. According to Dr Avatar Krishan of Miami University, USA, who was one of the speakers, said flow cytometry is increasingly being deployed worldwide in clinical diagnosis resulting in improved patient care.  With the help of flow cytometry tumour cells in cavity fluids in lung, breast, ovarian and other cancer cases can be detected and confirmed in fifteen minutes. Dr H Krishnamurthy, senior officer at the National Centre for Biological Sciences opined that there was need to train personnel in the use of latest models of cytometry equipments used in India. At present flow cytometry based experiments are widely used in a spectrum of research activities including basic cell biology, cell cycle analysis, drug discovery, interrogation of mechanism of cell death, stem cell enumeration and isolation, side population etc. Flow Cytometry is also in vogue for diagnosis of leukemia, he added. Vice Chancellor of Sri Ramachandra University, Dr JSN Murthy, Dean of Faculties Dr KV Somasundaram, and Dr Ganesh Venkatraman, Organising Secretary of the workshop and over 70 participants from India and abroad participated in the programme. Source:Pharmabiz