THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The prestigious Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV) here is getting ready for a giant leap with the opening of a new building having 16 more laboratories and a new department. The 80,000-sq ft facility will be inaugurated in August. The IAV already has six labs and five departments.
IAV director E Sreekumar said the institute has started the hiring process for the new labs. “There will be 16 more advanced labs. So we have to increase the manpower and the hiring is on,” he told TNIE.Currently, the insitute has five scientists. “We need 27 more for the new labs. In addition, new support and administrative staff will be recruited.”
Bioinformatics and Statistics department will also be set up in the building, he said. The IAV already has five departments - Virus Applications, Clinical Virology, Viral Diagnostics, Viral Vaccines and Antiviral Drug Research.
The first phase of the IAV was envisaged in two stages, 1(A) and 1(B). Phase I(A) was inaugurated in February 2019. The new building has come up as Phase I(B). “The Phase I(A) is already functional. Over 70 virus samples were collected and examined here,” Sreekumar said. The Phase II is coming up on 20 acres near the current one, he said. It will have hostels for research students, quarters for staff and recreational facilities.
The idea of an advanced virology institute in the state came up at the time of the Nipah outbreak in 2018. Sending samples for confirmation tests to Pune and Bhopal caused delay in treatment. The government wanted to avoid the delay by having a state-of-the-art facility in the state. The IAV was envisoned as a hub of advanced testing labs to detect major viral diseases, including Nipah, and cutting-edge research facilities to develop even vaccines.
Unlike other research hubs, the IAV has more stringent rules and guidelines as it comes under the Biosafety-II category. Hence it cannot set up more departments all of a sudden, sources said.
FACILITIES
Bioinformatics and Statistics department to be set up in the building
IAV already has Virus Applications, Clinical Virology, Viral Diagnostics, Viral Vaccines and Antiviral Drug Research departments