Chennai has become home to India’s first diabetes biobank, established by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in partnership with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF).
This state-of-the-art facility at MDRF is designed to collect, process, store, and distribute biological samples to advance diabetes research.
V Mohan, Chairman of MDRF and Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, said the biobank aims to study the causes of diabetes, its unique patterns in India, and related health disorders.
The biobank contains blood samples from two major ICMR-funded studies: the ICMR-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study conducted across States and Union Territories from 2008 to 2020, and an ongoing registry of young-onset diabetes, initiated in 2006. These samples include various types of diabetes, such as Type 1, Type 2, and gestational diabetes, and will aid future research
(With inputs from agencies).