The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi opened a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) facility on Wednesday in an effort to transform biomedical and clinical diagnostics research.

The new center, the first of its kind among top Indian educational institutions, will support research on class-3 pathogen diagnostic tools and treatments.

The accomplishment highlights IIT Delhi’s dedication to promoting innovation in healthcare technology and marks a significant advancement in India’s capacity for biomedical research.

By bringing scientists and engineers together on one platform to conduct cutting-edge research, this new research and testing facility will support IIT Delhi’s efforts to serve both academia and industry in the field of healthcare research and facilitate research and innovation in medical diagnostics and therapeutics.

Prof. Arvind Nema, Deputy Director (Operations), IIT Delhi, stated that it will create a number of chances for research partnerships with medical institutions in the National Capital Region and around India.

The recently opened research center is part of the IIT Delhi Central Research Center and is situated on campus at the Micromodel Complex.

According to CRF guidelines, it would be paid for and offered to academic and corporate researchers for short- to medium-haul travel with assistance.

Startups and MSMEs would greatly benefit from the BSL3 research center since they could use the space for rapid iterations without having to invest in specialized facilities.

We are pleased to contribute a fresh perspective to IIT Delhi’s medical diagnostics ecosystem. This would be the first time a user may bring their medical gadget inside the facility and test it under the guidance of qualified experts with experience in class-3 pathogen treatment, in contrast to other similar BSL3 facilities in India.

Prof. Sandeep K. Jha of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, who is also the facility’s faculty-in-charge, stated that this will allow hardware and software engineers to debug and improve their diagnostic platform inside the building.

According to Prof. Ashok K. Patel of the Kusuma School of Biological Sciences at IIT Delhi, who co-led the initiative, “device developers had to send their products to specialized BSL3 and BSL4 labs for testing because this type of assisted entry has not been available in the country before, which made it difficult to quickly fix and improve device performance.“