Infectious Diseases

Overview

The Infectious Disease Biology Program aims to provide solutions to infectious diseases of global concern such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (including MDR & XDR TB), vector borne diseases; emerging or re-emerging threats such as influenza, Japanese Encephalitis and antibiotic-resistant microbes in terms of therapeutics, diagnostics and preventive measures.  The Program supports R&D projects with an aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target3.3 of ending the epidemics of AIDS, TB, malaria and neglected tropical diseases, and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases by 2030. Infectious diseases are among top 10 causes of total number of deaths in the country dominated by diarrheal diseases, neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections and tuberculosis. For India as a whole, the disease burden or DALY rate for diarrhoeal diseases, iron-deficiency anaemia, and tuberculosis is 2.5 to 3.5 times higher than the average globally.

Mandate

1. To support R&D efforts in important infectious diseases with focus on that of viral and protozoan origin, prevalent in the country.
2. Establishment of nation-wide consortia based programmes for these infectious diseases with the involvement of clinicians, academia and industry.
3. To develop preventive, therapeutic and diagnostic tools for major infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Hepatitis, Influenza, Chikungunya, Leishmaniasis, Dengue etc

Thrust Areas

1. Viral Diseases

The program fosters conducting and supporting research for basic disease biology, molecular mechanism of pathogenesis, host-pathogen interactions of viral infections like HIV, Dengue, Chikungunya, influenza, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B etc. Biomedical research supported under this program provides the tools necessary to develop diagnostic tests, new and improved treatments to combat these threats. This includes working towards HIV cohort studies, dengue and chikungunya diagnostics that could provide long-lasting protection against these viral threats.

2. Protozoal diseases

Many Centers of Excellence (CoEs) have been supported in the area of Malaria research. The basic interventions supported under these CoEs include (a) understanding the molecular machinery of Plasmodium: Signaling, Autophagy and Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS), (b) molecular dissection and inhibitor discovery against motors associated with protein translation in malaria parasites, (c) discovery of new drug targets against the malarial parasite and (d) understanding the molecular parasitology and critical events in biology of blood stage of malaria parasites. In addition, R&D efforts to understand the mechanism of pathogenesis, identification of drug targets for the control of Lieshmaniasis have been implemented under this area of research.

Major Programs and initiatives

1. National HIV Cohort Program - The National HIV Cohort Program (CoHRPICA) is a multi-institutional collaborative program co-funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

2. COVID-19 Initiative- Considering current COVID 19 crisis, the Department took immediate initiative on COVID-19 Research Consortium to support R&D efforts to tackle this infective agent. The Department has supported 14 projects aimed at developing Therapeutics against COVID-19 under the DBT-BIRAC COVID-19 research consortium.

Facilities Established

National Liver Disease Biobank: National Liver Disease Biobank (NLDB), New Delhi is a first of its kind national biobank, executed by the joint initiative of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences for translational research in Liver and allied diseases. NLDB provides the opportunity of open resource sharing across the nation. NLDB has established a network and is operating based on the SOPs and storing human biological samples to ensure their optimum quality, harmonization and security, and the ethical and legal requirements guaranteeing the rights of donors. Over 1 lakh liver samples have been collected from 10,000+ patients and provided 5,000+ samples to 26 researchers via 19 collection centres.  NLDB has trained 150 students via 7 curriculum workshops. It is the first Biobank in India certified by CTRnet.

Achievements, Success Stories & Products/Processes Developed

1. Dengue Day 1 test- Highly Sensitive and specific rapid 1-Day Dengue Diagnostic Kit that detects Dengue Virus (DENV) infection from Day 1 of infection has been developed by ICGEB with funding support from DBT.

2. HIV Tri-Dot+Ag test- A Rapid Visual Test for the Qualitative and differential Detection of HIV-1 antigen and Antibodies to HIV-1 & HIV-2 in Human Serum/Plasma has been developed by ICGEB and JMItra with funding support from DBT.

Outcomes

Contacts Concerned Officer for more Information