National Facility for Gene Function in Health and Disease (NFGFHD)

In  Context 

• The National Facility for Gene Function in Health and Disease (NFGFHD) was inaugurated in Pune by the Union Minister of Education.

About NFGFHD 

• It has been set up at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. 
• It is supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) at a total cost of about Rs 45 crore.
• It will play an important role in studying diseases and provide new knowledge that can inform health and medicine.
•  It includes molecular biology labs and microinjection set-up to generate knock-out or knock-in mouse models.
• Features 
  • 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.
  • The facility houses molecular biology laboratories and mico-injection setups 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 under study. 
    • This is done through CRISPR / Cas9 systems.
  • The technological expertise available at this facility includes sperm and embryo cryopreservation and in-vitro fertilisation, and stereo-taxic surgery. 

Objectives and need

• With a growing zoonotic disease burden on human health, there is an increased urgency to perform disease studies based on physiological evidence and methods.
•  Since human trials alone cannot suffice for such studies, the need for having experimental setups using animal models has become imperative.

Source:IE