GITAM invests Rs. 45 crore to set up MURTI for advanced research & drug discovery in cancer & infectious diseases
June 21, 2023
Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), campus in Vishakhapatnam houses R&D lab for biotechnology and drug discovery which will help create start-up eco-system. The 'Multidisciplinary Unit of Research on Translational Initiatives' (MURTI), will offer this facility against a small fee across colleges in the country.
The launch of MURTI coincides with GITAM's sizeable investment of Rs. 45 crore for the financial year 2022-23, with plans to set up MURTI centres across its two other campuses in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
This is the second phase of MURTI and the first was opened in February this year where its state-of-the-art laboratory will focus on research in clusters and drug discovery in cancer biology, material sciences, infectious biology, environmental and atmospheric sciences, chemical ecology and computational linguistics.
The lab located on the ground floor of the department of pharmacy, GITAM University campus has already received around 200 applications for the Department of Science and Technology’s Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute SATHI scheme.
MURTI is equipped with four sophisticated equipment like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LCMS), high resolution mass spectrometry (HSMS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and 500 MHz NMR, said Raja P Pappu, director, R&D, GITAM.
Under DST's SATHI the infrastructure can be set up to be readily made accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries, and research and development labs. Additionally, MURTI is partnering with leading biotech industries, and has submitted grant applications to DST, DBT, and BIRAC for prospective collaborations.
The Union government has been encouraging private universities to apply for SATHI programme so that one could create such facilities for the local ecosystem, and also encourage private industries as to put some money in it.
According to Dr S Chandrasekhar, secretary, Department of Science and Technology such an ecosystem would enable start-ups, while suggesting that GITAM could allow the lab to be used by local universities and institutions for a nominal fee. This will begin with Andhra University, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada.
"The government has limited labs. We have about 1,000 labs, national institutes and central institutes, but these do not cater to all researchers. GITAM has taken the initiative to build best of the analytical facilities,” he added.
Engineers and doctors are seen to co-exist. With the combined capabilities of engineering and medicine, India can catch up on biologics, which is going to be a major development for the country in the coming years. Such programmes, will see GITAM to tap the best talent so that they not just go to civil services, engineering or medical fields, but they do come to science," he said.
PHARMABIZ.com