Facilities at JBTDRC & Department of Biochemistry

Research Laboratories

Molecular Biology Laboratory
Immunology Laboratory
Cell Culture Laboratories
PG Research Laboratory
RIA facility
Instrument rooms

Major Equipments

The centre has acquired sophisticated instruments such as FPLC – System (Pharmacia), Freeze drier (Virtis), ELISA Reader (ERBA), Cryopreservation equipment (Forma scientific), Thermocycler (PCR) equipment (Biometra), CO2 Incubator (Forma Scientific), Orbital-Shaker (Forma Scientific), Ultracentrifuge (Kontron), Spectrophotometer  (Gilford), Minicold Lab with Chromatography equipment, ELISA Reader (DynaTech)., Walk in cold room, Gamma Isotope Counters, SDS-PAGE & Sub-marine multiphoresis electrophoresis apparatus, -700C Freezers (Forma & Revco) and Millipore Biocel Water Purification System, Gel-Doc System (Kodak), Pellicone Ultrafiltration System (Millipore) and Liquid Scintillation Counter (Packard)  for biomedical research.  In addition the centre has National Repository for filarial parasites supported by DBT, insectarium and animal house with filarial animal models.  B.malayi is being maintained in rodents (Swiss and Desert rats), the second institute in India.

Animal Facility

Filaria Animal Model

A National Repository facility for filarial parasites and reagents is set up with the support from DBT. Brugia malayi filarial infection susceptible in rodents mastomys and jirds ( second facility in India) and a filarial sera bank with a collection of about 300 sera of different clinical groups of bancroftian filariasis from various endemic regions are being maintained.

Animal House

There is an independent CPCSEA registered animal house of about 1800 sq. ft area (constructed  with support of TDR and DBT grants) housing about 140  Mastomys natalensis (Swiss rats) & 220 Meriones unguiculatus (Desert rats) as filarial animal models and  10 Balb/c mice (for hybridoma technique) and 12  rabbits for raising antisera.

Insectarium

This is a breeding and rearing facility for Aedes aegypti (Liverpool black eye strain) mosquito colony to be used as vector for transmission of B. malayi infection to Mastomys & jirds.