The Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Madras,  is all set to launch the national cancer tissue biobank, a first-of-its-kind community-based tissue bank. This tissue biobank is a joint venture between the department of science and Technology, government of India and IIT-Madras. The initial focus of the bio-repository is to collect and store various cancer tissues.

“We will initially take samples from cancer patients in hospitals in and around Chennai with their consent. When the surgeon does the surgery, he will provide us with a tissue for the bank. We will use the sample for identification of biomarker and for generic sequencing for personalised drug delivery,” Professor S. Mahalingam, professor in the department of biotechnology at the IIT-Madras and who is involved in the project said.

He added that Union government’s department of science and technology and IIT-M had provided a joint funding of Rs 31 crore as five-year initial funding for establishment of the biobank.
The biobank will be launched as part of Cancercon 2014, a three-day cancer research conference, which starts on January 30. IIT-M’s Biotechnology department and Cancer Research and Relief Trust (CRRT) have jointly organised the conference. Professor K. Vijay Raghavan, secretary, union biotechnology department and IIT-M director Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi would inaugurate the conference.

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