Address At The Inauguration Of High Containment Laboratory Of National Institute Of Virology(Niv) At Pune

Science is a Life Time Mission

Life is not easy for any one of us. But what of that?  
We must have perseverance, above all confidence  
in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for  
something and that this thing must be obtained,  
- By Marie Curie

I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of High Containment Laboratory of National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune. I greet the members of the Ministry of Health, scientific team of National Institute of Virology, researchers, technologists, industry partners and distinguished guests. I am happy to know that the NIV has established the high containment laboratory which will enhance the capability of the scientists to carryout investigations on viral diseases in a safe work place and risk free environment. When I am with this team I am reminded of the work by Marie Curie.

Sacrifice for research

Marie Curie had struggled as a girl in Russia occupied Poland to secretly obtain an education that was banned for women by the Czar. The work what she did, was done with patience, often getting results only after years of careful experimentation, while struggling for money to support her work. For the research what she wanted to do, she needed more space than her small lab. A friend introduced her to another young scientist, Pierre Curie, who had some extra room in which she moved her equipment and later they got married. She learned about the properties of Uranium from A. Henri Becquerel and got interested in it. Marie Curie set about investigating the effect, which she named "radio-activity". Marie Curie checked many other elements to determine whether they too were radioactive. She found Uranium, Thorium and Pitch-blend to have radio-active properties. She used to carry Pitch-blend as a head load for the laboratory to extract few grams of radio active material. Working together, it took Marie and Pierre four years to isolate the radioactive source in the pitch-blend. Marie Curie wrote, ?Two minerals of Uranium, pitchblende (a uranium oxide) and chalcolite (uranyl copper phosphate) are much more active than uranium itself. This fact is most remarkable, and suggests that these minerals may contain an element much more active than uranium. I prepared chalcolite from pure reagents according to the procedure of Debray; this artificial chalcolite is no more active than other uranium salts?. Marie Curie named it radium. For the discovery of radium, Marie and Pierre won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, which they shared with their friend A. Henri Becquerel. Maire Curie was the first women to get the Nobel Prize. Later, Marie found that what she had discovered was not pure radium, but she was able to isolate the element itself after quite a struggle. For this work, she was given the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. For her outstanding work she received two Nobel Prizes. Through the knowledge she gained, thousands of lives have been saved. Marie Curie died in Paris due to radiation poisoning. That was probably at that time there was no safe working place against radiation effect. I am glad to be here with a team which has a safe place for working on the science of virology. Today, the science has advanced considerably and we have safe risk free environment for our scientists to undertake work on hazardous elements and viruses.

The science of proteomics and gene chip

India missed the great opportunity in partnering the human genome project and thereby lost the utility of tremendous data. I suggest the Indian biomedical community to take the initiative to become a working partner in the proteomics project of gene characterization. Proteomics is the study of all the proteins expressed by the genome of a cell. It is the logical extension of genomics. Proteomics helps to understand the basic biological processes critical to normal cellular functions as well as the development of diseases. It identifies the essential components of these processes and exploits these components as targets in the development of new methods to prevent or treat diseases. The national programme on proteomics has to be accelerated with partnership from industries and R & D laboratories. I would suggest that this should be pursued as a mission mode project. The proteomics resulting into a gene chip can become the future diagnostic and treatment regime for many diseases. This will be of interest to the NIV scientists.

Tasks of NIV

National Institute of Virology, over the last few decades, has investigated several viral diseases. The achievement of the laboratory include discovery of Kyasanur forest disease as a new disease caused by KFD Virus, developed and produced inactivated vaccine against KFD and transfered the technology to Karnataka State. This is the first institute to confirm the occurrences of Arbo viral diseases like Japanese encephalitis and Chandipura in India. Apart from this, NIV has worked on Hepatitis A, B and C, influenza, Retro Viruses, Measles etc.. The tasks undertaken by NIV have led to the establishment of High Containment Laboratory for carrying out risk free research. I am happy to inaugurate this High Containment Laboratory.

High Containment Laboratories (HCL) ? a research tool

High Containment Laboratories are required for handling micro-organisms of the highest order of pathogenicity. The clinical specimens from patients suspected to be suffering from agents viz; Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, SARS, KFD, Viral agents causing hemorrhagic fever, anthrax, plague and certain rickettsial agents are to be handled in HCL for the purpose of isolation, propagation, characterization as well as their experimentations in small laboratory animals. Vaccine production units also have similar facilities for handling organisms during its formulation namely handling seed culture of viruses, bacteria etc. Other set-ups in vaccine preparation, however, require clean room facilities with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).

The major three aspects which are looked into are (i) air handling units (AHUs) with air filtration system through HEPA filters (ii) Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) (iii) Decontamination of labs, materials and safe disposal of used lab materials required to prevent leakage of microorganisms from the lab either in the form of aerosol or through solid/liquid materials. Trained personnels are required for working in such labs (facilities) with personal protection devices. Maintaining full functionality of the facility will require failsafe systems for ensuring availability of negative pressure, steam generation, compressed air, high purity water generation, steady supply of power etc. One of the most important needs of containment laboratories has to be a prefect system of maintenance of all services including failsafe system with redundancy. I am happy that all these aspects of containment capabilities exist in the High Containment Laboratory.

Networking Laboratories

In India, we have a few high containment laboratories. They are High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory (HSADL) at Bhopal, High Containment lab at DRDE, Gwalior, and one planned to be developed at NICD, Delhi. Besides these, several vaccine production units viz; Hoechst, National Dairy Development Board do have some high containment laboratories. It is essential for the scientists of National Institute of Virology to have a common forum of all high containment facilities users in the country. This will enable sharing of knowledge among the scientists leading to enhance application of the facility without any hazard.

Epidemic Investigations in India

In our country, disease outbreaks occur almost in every part of the country inviting national and international attention. Some of them are plague at Surat in1994, the unknown fever of Siliguri in 2001 and killer brain disease caused by Chandipura Virus in Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra in 2003. Detecting an outbreak, responding to it quickly to generate necessary information and initiate urgent action is necessary to ensure minimum causalities. There is a need to review the gaps in outbreak detection, and management in the country and suggest possible rapid response methods for effective management of future occurrences. The scientists of NIV have an important role to play in such reviews, so that detection and management systems of such outbreaks are constantly improved. Nation has lot of expectations from NIV in the development and production of anti-HIV vaccine. Similarly we have to anticipate any virus threat such as SARS ? researchers have to equip themselves with suitable tools to contain such virus attack.

Conclusion : Multi Dimensions of Technology

Technology has multiple dimensions. It may be used as a double edged weapon. Geopolitics convert the technology to a particular nation?s policy. The same policy will lead to economic prosperity and capability for national security. For example, the developments in chemical engineering brought fertilizers for higher yield of crops while the same science led to chemical weapons. Likewise, rocket technology developed for atmospheric research helped in launching satellites for remote sensing and communication applications which are vital for the economic development. The same technology led to development of missiles with specific defence needs that provide security for the nation.

The aviation technology development has led to fighter and bomber aircraft, and the same technology will lead to passenger jet and also help operations requiring quick reach of support to people affected by disasters. When nuclear science was born in India in 1950s, in two decades India got nuclear medicine, nuclear irradiation for preservation and multiplication of improved varieties of agricultural products, nuclear power and much later weapons. Similarly in the case of science of virology, the same science can be used for anti virus vaccines as NIV is doing and also some other nations may use the same science for generating virus for biological warfare. It is essential as in the case of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a treaty has to be in place for the elimination of chemical weapons. It is essential for the world body like the United Nations to bring into force a biological weapon treaty in a time bound manner to prevent some of the irresponsible groups of nations deploying the virus for biological terrorism. We should note that the existence of biological weapons is always a danger to humanity.

Doctors and Engineers can jointly work for a futuristic development of biological radars for early detection of infectious diseases transmitted through virus or bacteria. The advent of Carbon Nano Tubes will enable development of such biological radars.

I wish the members of National Institute of Virology all success in their mission of fighting against viruses.

May God bless you.