The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) inked a deal for collaborative research in the area of Rare Diseases and application of genomics to aid clinical decisions.

AIIMS Delhi is a premier Institute for medical education and research in India, having extraordinary infrastructure, specialized medical/paramedical staff, management and state of the art facilities for patient care, training programmes and research activities. CSIR-IGIB is one of the premier Institutes in India pioneering cutting edge advancements in Genomic Science and a constituent laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Research at CSIR-IGIB spans a variety of areas including Genomics & Molecular Medicine, Chemical & Systems Biology, Genome Informatics & Structural Biology, Respiratory Disease Biology and Energy & Environmental Biotechnology.
As part of the agreement, AIIMS Delhi and CSIR IGIB would collaborate in the area of genetic diseases as well as application of genomics in clinical settings. This would include formulation and participation in joint collaborative programs spanning genomics for aiding the diagnosis, understanding the prognosis and aiding precise therapy of genetic diseases. The deal would also enable faculty members of both institutes to actively participate in formulating and implementing collaborative programs aimed at accelerating the application of genomics to aid clinical decisions.

The deal would also allow AIIMS Delhi to access the state of the art genomics and bioinformatics infrastructure as well as the clinical genomics analytical resources at CSIR IGIB to enable fast, accurate and cost effective diagnosis of genetic diseases for patients coming to AIIMS Delhi.

CSIR IGIB has been a pioneer in translational genomics in India. The Genomics for Understanding Rare Diseases India Alliance Network (GUaRDIAN) is a focussed translational research programme in the area of Rare Diseases initiated in the year 2015. The programme has evolved to become one of the largest of its kind in the area of Rare genetic diseases with a clinical collaborative network of over 100 clinicians from over 35 clinical centres across India working on Rare Diseases.

A complementary programme entitled Genomics and other Omics tools for Enabling Medical Decisions (GOMED) initiated last year at CSIR IGIB enables affordable and equitable access to genetic diagnosis. The programme covers genetic tests for over 80 genes and has already catered to over 2000 patients in from over 25 Centres from across India.

Skilled manpower is undoubtedly essential to advance and accelerate clinical adoption of genomics. This deal also envisages imparting genomics knowledge for practicing clinicians through training and education as well as faculty exchange. This would surely provide impetus to national initiatives like the Skill India programme. The deal also envisages setting up collaborative research programmes aimed at accelerating research in the area of clinical genomics in India.