In news

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India inaugurated the new research building ‘Desikan Bhawan' equipped with new  COVID-19 diagnostic facility at ICMR-NJIL&OMD, Agra

Highlights

• The building is dedicated for research facilities like animal experimentation, COVID-19 diagnosis, whole genome sequencing of different Mycohacteriu: species and phytochemical extraction from medicinal  plants for anti-TB drug development.
  
• The capacity of COVID-19 Diagnostic Laboratory is around 1200  samples per day.
  
• This COVID diagnostic lab is loaded with Biosafety level II (BSL I) cabinets,  automated RNA extractors, and Real Time PCR machines with which the diagnostic results ean be  reported within a day. 

About the Institute

• ICMR- National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra was established  in 1967 by the Japan Leprosy Mission for Asia (JALMA) and was handed over to the Indian Council of  Medical Research in 1976.
  
• ICMR-NJIL&OMD carries out basic and applied research on leprosy, TB and  other myeobacterial diseases in the following thrust areas:
  

(i) Early diagnosis and treatment, transmission  dynamics
(ü) Prevention of deformities in leprosy
(iii) Field studies
(iv) Operational research
(v) Laboratory  research on mycobacterial diseases and MIP vaccine to leprosy.

Source: PIB