The Institute's capability in drug R&D; is vested in its research facilities, infrastructure and expertise. The research facilities are distributed in 17 R&D; divisions which cover almost all disciplines required for drug research:

New Facilities Created
To strengthen the Institute's capability in targeted drug research, molecular biology, structural biology, genomics, combinatorial chemistry, medium/ high throughput screening, molecular modelling, etc., facilities have recently been created and their further stengthening is being carried out.

X-ray crystallography
A new facility for structural biology research has been created at CDRI. It comprises a wet laboratory housed with state-of-the-art equipments for cloning/expression and purification of proteins, a modern x-ray laboratory with P4 single crystal x-ray diffractometer system for small molecule crystallography, a MAR 345 image-plate detector on RU-300 rotating anode x-ray generator with cryo-cooling system for macromolecule crystallography, a precision camera on a FR590 x-ray generator for preliminary diffraction work and a computer graphics laboratory for molecular modelling and crystallographic computations.

The facility will be used for atomic level structure determination of proteins and small molelcules of biological and structural importance required for knowledge-based drug design through molecular modelling.


Combinatorial synthesis & High throughput screening
The generation of molecular diversity and its potential to facilitate the drug discovery process has recently attracted enormous attention. The institute has made an endeavour in this direction by setting up in-house facilities for both Combinatorial chemistry and High throughput screening (HTS) as tools in the Institute's drug discovery programme. This central facility comprise a Multiple organic synthesizer 496 MOSA for combinatorial synthesis and an Automated Robotics High Throughput Screening system BMG Polar Star Galaxy with optional accessories.

The technical infrastructure comprises of the national level facilities, viz. National Laboratory Animal Centre (NLAC), Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre (RSIC) and National Information Centre for Drugs & Pharmaceuticals (NICDAP). These facilities had been created at CDRI with financial support from Departments of Science & Technology, Biotechnology or Scientific & Industrial Research in recognition of the fact that this Institute already had the required expertise in these areas. These facilities cater to the needs of individual researchers, as well as academia, research institutions and industry.

The other technical infrastructure comprises specialised facilities viz Biometry and statistics, Instruments maintenance, Glass blowing, R&D; planning, IPR protection, Licensing, International coordination, etc.

The R&D; Capability

Chemical synthesis, Extraction from natural products and Structure elucidation.

Synthesis of novel molecules of known and new structural types exhibiting biological activity.
Laboratory and large scale extraction of ethanolic extracts of plant material and isolation of active principle(s).
Synthesis of novel structures, and structure elucidation of active compound(s) by sophisticated techniques.

Biological Screening

Facilities are available for 170 in vitro/in vivo test systems (antifertility, antifilarial, antiamoebic, antileishmanial, antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, hepatoprotective, immunomodulator, CNS & CVS and other pharmacological activities).

Plant Collection and Authentication.

Collection, authentication and supply of plants for biological screening. The Institute has a specialised herbarium of medicinal plants containing about 6000 species representing about 1/3 of Indian flora for reference purpose.

Drugs Standardisation

Standardisation of synthetic and plant based drugs by monitoring through HPTLC and HPLC of active constituents as marker vis-a-vis their biological activity.

Chemical finger printing of herbal drugs is carried out by LC-MS to have a complete picture of different organic constituents. Standardization of candidate drugs is carried out as per ICH guidelines.

Regulatory Toxicity, Pharmacokinetics & Clinical Trials

Facilities for preclinical toxicity evaluation and pharmacokinetics and phase-I clinical finds are available.

Chemical & Fermentation Technology Development

Pilot plant scale facilities exist for the synthetic and natural products. The facilities for natural products include grinding, extraction and concentration.

Fermentation technology facilities cover culture isolation to improvement, bench-scale optimization of process parameters and scaling-up of the bioprocesses to laboratory/pilot fermenter level. Fermenters available from 5 to 1500 L alongwith downstream processing facilities such a centrifugation, extraction, concentration, drying, etc. Studies carried out on various biotransformation processes at bench level in novel bioreactor systems using free as well as immobilized biocatalysts.

• Analytical Services
• Laboratory Animal Facility
• Information Services
• Training facilities

The Institute also undertakes training in 17 specialised areas relevant to drug research, on payment basis.