Q : Can we still consider ICGEB as an international institute after the Italian government pulled out its funding in 2013 ? How does it function now and what role does Indian government play here ?
Funding apart , ICGEB remains an International Institution . With Government of India increasing its share of host country contribution , we restructured the institution in such a way that it maintains its unique & distinct identity yet it must be affordable in the budgeting we have in the Indian context .
ICGEB still has three components , one being in Delhi , India ; second in Trieste , Italy , which is the headquarters and the third in Cape Town , South Africa . Large number of workshops and other common activities are spearheaded from our headquarters . The Director General heads the threecomponent system and a Director is at helm in each Component .
The governance structure of ICGEB remains the same as before . The agenda is guided by the Council of Scientific Advisors ( CSA ), an international body and ratified by the Board of Governance ( BoG ). The Government of India is represented by the Secretary , Department of Biotechnology on the BoG . That was the case earlier and that is the case now . Besides the host country contribution , we receive substantial extra-mural funding from the DBT as well as other funding agencies ; much of the development of malaria and dengue vaccine or many basic research projects at ICGEB were funded by extramural grants . The agenda for extra mural grants is as per the mandate of the projects as agreed to by the funding agencies . While ICGEB has always retained its autonomous character as an international institute , the government of India is also in the loop substantially due to funding reasons , besides being part of BoG . Department of Biotechnology is the Nodal agency for this purpose .
Q : How has been the progress on the joint vaccine development programme with the Sun Pharma ?
The recombinant dengue vaccine developed by Dr Navin Khanna over past several years was ready to be taken for clinical development . It was the conscious decision of ICGEB to look for an industry partner for this purpose and through a regular process Sun Pharma was identified , with whom we now have an agreement for the clinical development of this novel recombinant dengue vaccine which and could be a game changer .
Initial research of Dr Khanna towards development of the vaccine was funded by ICGEB , DBT and Wellcome Trust and they all were consulted while going ahead with this stage . Dr Khanna is busy in the transfer of technology to Sun Pharma . There is a joint committee for management and advice also with eminent personalities on board . While the financial part is being supported by Sun Pharma , the technical support is by Dr Khanna ’ s lab . The Sun Pharma has also given a grant to Dr Khanna to continue future research .
Besides the clinical development of vaccine , as you are aware , a botanical drug was jointly discovered by Dr Naveen Khanna ’ s team at ICGEB and team and erstwhile avatar of Sun Pharma i . e . Ranbaxy under a joint project . Sun Pharma has also taken up development of this drug jointly .
Q : Has any goal setting been done for this project ?
The timelines are of course required by the industry . The Sun Pharma is surely fully capable of taking it forward . Transfer of technology is presently being done and may be completed in next year or so . The stepwise subsequent clinical developments will take a while but it is being done in a very high priority .
The work that has gone into this project since last 15 years , tells a lot about the ICGEB ’ s capabilities in basic as well as translational research . Lot of papers related to this project as well as other projects have been published in journals of repute .
Q : What new initiatives have been undertaken at ICGEB in last one year ? Also , the ones that have been driven by you ?
In the past , the ICGEB was typically focusing on two broader research areas , one being agriculture research including plant biotechnology and the second one was human health . We have lot of strength in both these domains . We have also carved out another domain called integrative biology . Thus , we have now redefined our objectives into three categories . On one hand plant biology currently focuses crop improvement
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