Overview
The Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) is an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. It is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. The institute was set up in 2009 at Gurgaon and is presently located in the NCR Biotech Science Cluster at Faridabad, alongside the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, the Advanced Technology Platforms Centre, a Small Animal Facility and a Bio-incubator.
THSTI was envisioned by M. K. Bhan, former Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, with the aim of enabling a faster transition of laboratory research to market-ready applications. Pramod Garg serves as the Executive Director of the institute.
Centres and research
The institute houses six intramural centres: the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Research Centre (VIDRC), the Paediatric Biology Centre (PBC), the Centre for Bio-design & Diagnostics (CBD), the Centre for Human Microbial Ecology (CHME), the Policy Centre for Biomedical Research (PCBR), and the Drug Discovery Research Centre (DDRC).
VIDRC works on technologies relating to the prophylaxis, treatment and diagnosis of infections caused by Japanese encephalitis virus, dengue virus, HIV, rotavirus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and hepatitis E virus. In 2009, the HIV Vaccine Translational Research (HVTR) laboratory was established at THSTI in collaboration with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, USA, with the aim of developing immunogens for use in immunogenic compositions against HIV. The laboratory has worked with partners including the Scripps Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg.
VIDRC has also collaborated with the Department of Biotechnology, Bharat