National Facility for Gene Function in Health & Disease

Subject: Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

Context: Recently, the National Facility for Gene Function in Health and Disease was inaugurated

National Facility for Gene Function in Health & Disease

Recently, the National Facility for Gene Function in Health and Disease was inaugurated in Pune by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education.
The NFGFHD has been set up at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune and is supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
This will be one-of-its-kind large facilities providing a timely supply of animal models to researchers studying a range of diseases from cancer to diabetes.
Rats, mice and rabbits will be housed here, doing away with the need to import them.

Why the need?

To study diseases in a time-bound manner.
Dependence on small animals such as rats, mice and rabbits to study human diseases.
CRISPR / Cas9 systems can be used to generate mouse models, in which scientists will knock out existing genes and replace them with external or artificial genes that are linked to the disease.
It also has facilities for making embryonic stem cell-based models and traditional transgenic mice models, embryo and sperm cryopreservation, and in-vitro fertilization.
Thus, will also develop trained and skilled manpower.