Chandigarh, Jun 19 (PTI) Punjab Governor and UT Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Monday inaugurated a 'one week one lab' programme and a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility at CSIR- Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) here.

This is one-of-its-kind of a facility in the country with GMP infrastructure, quality management system and operational modules, an IMTECH release said.

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It is expected to contribute towards national missions like Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat in the biopharmaceutical domain, it said.

The facility is envisioned to provide globally recognised cell banks and expression systems used for the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotherapeutics and biosimilars to industries, startups, entrepreneurs, MSMEs as well as research organisations.

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CSIR-IMTECH is celebrating the 'one week one lab' (OWOL) programme from June 19 to June 24, under CSIR - one week one lab campaign, which was launched by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh.

"The aim of this OWOL is to showcase the research and technology prowess of IMTECH to the tricity (comprising of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali cities) and to the industry," the release said.

Purohit indicated that there is a strong need that public health research in India should prioritise its focus on disease burden in the Indian context.

N Kalaiselvi, Director General at CSIR & Secretary of DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research), who joined the event online, exhorted the scientists to take the path of integrated research and development for microbial technology by amalgamating basic and applied research programmes with the vision to translate the research outcomes into products for unmet needs of the society in general and medical fraternity, in particular.

The OWOL also aims to identify the needs of regions, develop collaboration with the industry for deployment of technology and commercialisation and provide desired scientific solutions, Sanjeev Khosla, Director at IMTECH, said.

It also has an objective to identify the potential industry for the co-development of next-gen technology and products and motivate researchers and budding entrepreneurs to create startups, he said.

CSIR-IMTECH is a national centre for excellence in microbial sciences and was established in 1984 under the aegis of CSIR.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)