Importance of core technology platforms

In life science research today, high-end technology and tools are becoming key components in conducting laboratory experiments. Hence, accessibility to these high-end technologies can determine the success of any scientific laboratory, organization, or community. In general, accessibility to advanced technology depends on individual Principal Investigator’s funding availability. Additionally, sharing these advance technology from individual laboratories has been a challenge through out the world; however, western countries have tried to address this by establishing core facilities accessible to all researchers. Several universities in the US and some institutions in Europe like EMBL, Marie Curie etc. have created state of the art technology platforms with technology champions as the head of each facility.

Need in India for core technology platforms

In the Indian Bioscience research community, there is currently a lack of high-end technologies being made available to the majority of scientists. This is not due to the lack of funds but the absence of professional expert-run facilities, focused on providing timely advice and services to scientists.  In order to have access to high-end technologies, individual PI’s are constantly required to dig into their grant funds and establish these facilities in-house. Subsequently, these facilities become exclusively available to the PI’s lab and very few others on the outside.  Even when the PI is happy to share his facilities, time and resources come in the way. As a ripple effect, these expensive technologies become infrequently used and the full potential and capabilities of the technologies are scarcely realized. Another significant stumbling block is the fact that these facilities are usually run by the PIs themselves and as a result are not given the attention they require to be managed and maintained appropriately.

In countries like the US, the burden on individual researchers has been lifted to some extent with the introduction of many centralized, high-end technology facilities that specifically cater to multiple institutions and organizations. These organizations also have dedicated facility managers and support staff to ensure the smooth running of the facilities and proper maintenance of equipment.

Genesis of C-CAMP

Given this contrasting scenario, it was felt that India needed a dedicated organization with the aim of giving Indian researchers access to high-end technologies through a centralized medium, allowing them to compete on the world stage and at the frontier of biological science. Thus, in 2009-2010 Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP, www.ccamp.res.in) came in to being as collaboration between Dept. of Biotechnology (Govt. of India) and Dept. of Atomic Energy (Govt. of India).

C-CAMP is part of the Bangalore BioCluster, which also consists of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS, www.ncbs.res.in) and The Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem, www.instem.res.in). Our vision is to act as an enabler of success in bioscience research and entrepreneurship by providing research, development, training and service in state of the art technology platforms.

C-CAMP wants to ensure investigators are able to utilize cutting-edge bioscience tools and not be limited by technological barriers while pursuing challenging scientific questions.  We are open to interesting ideas from potential collaborators from academia and industry to achieve these goals and are willing to support these ideas at various levels.

Fig 1. C-CAMP’s Mission

	Confocal and Fluorescence Microscopy The facility provides researchers with access to high-end platform technologies with some high-end confocal and fluorescence microscopes available in the facility.  This facility has contributed to several top-journal publications and is considered one of the best microscopy facilities around the world. Through C-CAMP, these technologies are also being made available to industry and commercial entities.
	Flow Cytometry With developments in cell-based assays, it is increasingly becoming imperative to also analyze and sort/purify the cell/organelle populations of interest by high-speed flow cytometry to study the genomic, proteomic and functional aspects of such purified populations.  The facility at C-CAMP provides access to high-end flow analyzers and flow sorters to allow high-speed analysis and sorting of cells, organelles and chromosomes.
	Molecular Characterization and Proteomics In protein science, Mass Spectrometry is by far the most frequently used technology today as it is a core protein characterization technique used by life scientists in their analysis work. Given this need, the mass spectrometry facility at C-CAMP aims to provide researchers with state-of the-art techniques and equipment to characterize biomolecules with an emphasis on proteins and peptides.
	Transgenic Fly Facility The availability of the complete annotated sequence of the Drosophila genome coupled with the invention of a number of elegant genetic techniques has made the fruit fly a more attractive model system than ever before. The NCBS Drosophila transgenic fly facility managed by C-CAMP offers a world-class microinjection service for the generation of transgenic lines and also, maintains a large number of mutant strains and transgenic lines.
	High-Throughput Screening C-CAMP’s High-Throughput Screening (HTS) core provides researchers with the ability to quickly identify active compounds, antibodies or genes that modulate a particular biochemical pathway, particularly vital for drug design, molecular interaction studies or for identifying the role of a particular biochemical process in biology. Initially, both RNAi based screens and chemistry-based screens and combinations of these will be available to access at C-CAMP.
	Next Generation Genomics C-CAMP has also established a Next Generation Genomics (NGG) facility to provide high-end technologies and expertise in the wider genomics space. Our facility will work in the broad areas of genomics including sequencing of genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes and epigenomes of animals, plants and microbes.
	Intellectual Property Management Office and Technology Transfer Office The Intellectual Property Management Office (IPMO) and Technology Transfer Office (TTO) at C-CAMP have been established to allow researchers from the Bangalore Bio Cluster (BBC) as well as support other institutes to realize the commercial potential of their exciting inventions and innovative research.

 Current national and international C-CAMP facility users

Figure 2. A distribution of organization in three segments: 1) Academic, 2) Non-Academic, and 3) International

Technology Education and Training

One challenge that the scientific community is facing today: availability of Expert Manpower to efficiently use the high-end technology available in the country. Keeping this in mind, C-CAMP is hands-on providing education/training programs to generate a pool of experts who can proficiently utilize high-end scientific technologies available in scientific organizations and hence, helps in scientific developments.

Taking The Technology Innovation Pathway

New technologies, depending on the specificity of the technology, take time to migrate (in terms of access) from the place of its origin to its place of application. This means that users in technology creating countries get to access the technology first, however, users in technology chasing countries only get to use the technology after a certain lag time. This can sometimes, be years depending on the exclusivity of the technology. Hence, apart from providing access to current bioscience platform technologies, C-CAMP is also involved in the development of new technologies in collaboration with scientific partners both in India and abroad. It is very important that a country like India is involved in technology creation to not only ensure timely access to technologies for its scientific community but also allow India to compete on the world stage in terms of technology advancement.  A significant focus is hence on Research and Development of new technologies.

Future Plans

Keeping up with the mandate of the C-CAMP, we are going to focus on the development and establishment of new high-end technologies for scientific research through multi-disciplinary collaborations, and making them available for researchers. Additionally, for continuous growth of technology expertise in the country we will continue to provide nation-wide comprehensive training programs with eminent faculty and the latest instruments in the market.

Gradual investment in our human resource stocks will enable us to enhance our technical and management expertise in the area of life sciences. With this enhancement, it is envisaged that C-CAMP will become a life science industry leader in research and development of new technology and technology platform services.

We aim to become a unique platform for all scientific researchers to come and discuss their needs, objectives and plans in terms of their research and science.