HYDERABAD: An advanced national facility for "combinatorial natural products" to screen plant-based, synthetic and hybrid compounds and expedite the process of drug discovery is being established at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT). To be funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the facility will be set up with an initial investment of Rs. 24 crores. It will be operational in a year with state-of-the-art equipment for biological screening and will be the first such facility in the country, IICT Director J. S. Yadav, told reporters here on Thursday.

He said that it would be among the world's most sophisticated drug development centres and also have a molecular bank for storing up to a million compounds with automatic storage and retrieval facilities using advanced robotic technologies.

Under one roof

Dr. Yadav said the drug development centres belonging to industry would be vastly benefited as biologically active compounds isolated from medicinal plants would be available under one roof for further exploitation. IICT would enter into tie-ups with industries interested in using the facility.

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