Central Instrument Facility
The Central Instrument facility (which includes the DST/ IRHPA sponsored National center for proteomics and genomics) is an independent unit within the institute which houses a large number of sophisticated instruments required for advanced research in biological and chemical sciences. The facility has been running at the institute for many years. It was started as a DBT sponsored facility, PD lab as it was known at that time, to encourage post-doctoral research in the early nineties. Subsequently the lab was converted to the Central Instruments facility with acquisition of many new equipment. The Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), which was earlier known as Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Center (RSIC) is now currently being managed by the same committee that looks after CIF. The CIF also caters for the equipment that were procured for the DST/IRPHA project on genomics and proteomics that was introduced in 2005. The facility is run by a group of highly trained technicians who not only look after the instruments but also advise research students about how to use them effectively. Most of these instruments are housed in the centenary campus at Bose Institute, but a few are present in the main campus. The facility is extensively used by not only in-house scientists, but also those whot belong to universities, colleges and research institutes located in the eastern part of the country. Every year the facility receives numerous visitors, particularly student groups coming from schools and colleges. The technicians interact with the young visitors and help them understand how the instruments function. The CIF facility which is now facing space crunch, will be shifted to the Unified Academic Campus building which has been built at sector V, Salt Lake. The facility is expected to expand substantially in the near future, as the institute undertakes new programs in evolving areas such as microbiome research, systems biology and traditional medicines.