Bioresources:
The Bioresources area focuses on living organisms and their applicability to Biopharmaceuticals. There are six research teams under this area of activity and encompasses marine, freshwater and terrestrial phototrophs , heterotrophs and large plants.

The Phototroph Research Group:

The Phototroph Research Group works on a number of marine and fresh water algae and cyanobacteria for the production of various target biochemicals. This Group also works developing protocols for the commercial scale production of various cultures as well as optimal stimulus for production of targeted biochemicals.

The Heterotroph Germ Plasm Group

The Heterotroph Germ Plasm Group concentrates on culture collection, purification and viable maintenance of wild strains of fungi and bacteria from remote and extreme environments. Researchers trawl different environments including the deep sea, mangroves and mountain environments for new strains of fungi and bacteria with relevant applications. This heterotroph Germ Plasm Group manages over 1500 strains in its culture collection.

The Phototroph Germ Plasm Group

The Phototroph Germ Plasm Group focuses on algae and cyanobacteria. Apart from over 500 useful strains, this group also works on predator control of various organisms which impede culture of the target organism. This group concentrates on culture collection, purification and viable maintenance of wild strains of algae and cyanobacteria from remote and extreme environments. The group also interfaces with the National Facility for Marine Cyanobacteria for continuing enhancement of its culture collection.

The Ethnobotany Group

The Ethnobotany Group works with large organism formats based on traditional and shamanistic sources of phytopharmaceutical data. It focuses at phytopharmaceutical leads for various disease states and works with the Micropropogation as well as Chemistry Groups in addressing solutions to both biomass availability as well as creating chemical analogs in case natural sourcing is difficult. The Ethnobotany Group also maintains a germ plasm collection of various types and species of targeted plants so as to have as wide a selection as possible.

The Micropropogation and Cell Culture Group

This group focuses at creating methodologies for sufficient biomass production of targeted large plants. It addresses herbs through micropropagation and induction of nutrient stresses for production of targeted levels of biochemicals. It also works on various cell culture models for controlled production of biomass of plant organisms that have less cultivation viability.

Chemistry:

The Chemistry Lab works on two strategic areas namely Synthesis and Bioprocess Development. The Synthesis Team works on synthesis, analog development and biotransformations.

The Bioprocess Development Group works on upscaling both biomass production as well as ‘down-stream’ processes for extraction and purification of targeted biochemicals.

Clinical Biology:

The Clinical Biology Area focuses at nine different disease states and works on screening fractions of various phytochemical extracts against the following states:

Kidney disorders, Allergy and skin diseases, Geriatrics, Post menopausal Syndromes, Arthritis and connective tissue disorders, Diabetes, Fungal Infections, Oncogenesis and Viral infections.
This Group also interfaces with the Madras University’s Dr.A.L.M. Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in seeking to develop New Chemical Entities, conduct invitro and invivo studies on cell and animal models and offer these to industry

Special Projects:

The Special Projects Group works on the development of platform technologies in the areas of molecular biology based plant production models, modulating biosynthetic pathways and establishing micro-array based screening models.