IIT Madras in partnership with the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), a Navratna Public Sector Enterprise, inaugurated the Nation’s first Single Cell Omics Translational (SCOT) Research Laboratory today (17.11.2025).

IRFC has sanctioned Rs.10.83 crore CSR grant to establish the lab within IIT Madras’s Department of Medical Sciences and Technology. This landmark initiative is poised to significantly accelerate India's journey in precision healthcare and drug discovery by bridging engineering and medical sciences.

The state-of-the-art SCOT Lab will facilitate research at an unprecedented cellular level, focusing on early diagnosis, disease prognosis, biomarker discovery, and drug screening across a spectrum of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular, infectious, inflammatory, metabolic, and other non-communicable diseases. The facility is equipped to accelerate research in single-cell biology and translational healthcare innovation, ultimately developing personalized treatment strategies.

This sophisticated facility was launched in the presence of Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, Ms. Usha Venugopal, Member (Finance), Ministry of Railways, Mr. Manoj Kumar Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director, IRFC, Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, Prof. Boby George, Head, DMST, IIT Madras, Prof Krishna Kumar, DMST, IIT Madras,Prof. Anubama Rajan, who is coordinating this project from the DMST, and other stakeholders.

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, highlighted the lab's role in driving ‘Make in India’ in healthcare, stating it will enhance the ability to develop solutions for targeted therapeutics and next-generation healthcare innovation.

Mr. Manoj Kumar Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director, IRFC, affirmed IRFC’s commitment to fostering cutting-edge research.

The lab will also serve as a national training hub, building the next generation of experts in single-cell transcriptomics and translational medicine. This collaboration marks a transformative step towards strengthening India’s precision medicine ecosystem.

 

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