Kapil Sibal, minister for science and technology, inaugurated the extended laboratory facility at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) for vaccine research. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of Italy and Letiza Brichetto Arnaboldi Moratti, minister of education, universities and scientific research, Italy were also present on the occasion. Research on dengue and tuberculosis vaccines and diagnostics will be carried out in the new facility. It has working space for about 50 researchers including six principal investigators.
Further, "A national facility for TB animal challenge with P4 biosafety level will come up by early next year at the ICGEB campus with the support of the DBT. This is the need of the hour as in spite of 30-40 researchers working on TB in India, a quality-challenge facility to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccines for TB does not exist," said Dr VS Chauhan, director, New Delhi component, ICGEB.
