THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the Department of Biotechnology's appointment of Prof M Radhakrishna Pillai as Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) for a second term of five years from March 1.
It was in 2005 that Radhakrishna Pillai first took over as Director of RGCB. Set up by him, the Molecular Diagnostics Facility of RGCB was appreciated both by the State and Central Governments for providing timely diagnostic assistance and infrastructure when epidemics such as the dengue, chikungunya and more recently H1N1 hit the state.
A centre with significant standing, RGCB today is perhaps best known for its distinct disease biology and molecular medicine programmes with interdisciplinary sciences being effectively used to ask relevant questions in disease pathogenesis. It was mainly due to the efforts of Radhakrishna Pillai that helped RGCB being taken over by Government of India and being brought under the Department of Biotechnology.
Until then, it was an institute under the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. The director also successfully piloted a second phase development of RGCB to create a unique interdisciplinary innovation centre.
This Rs 100 crore project has now been approved by the Department of Biotechnology.The phase two expansion of RGCB once established will surely be an institute of international standards in translational medicine.
It was also during Radhakrishna Pillai's tenure that Biospectrum, a leading publication that reflects the biotechnology sector in India,ranked RGCB as among the top three biotechnology schools in the country.
