A Government of Kerala virology institute at Thonnakkal, with the Chief Minister chairing its Governing Council

Background

The Institute of Advanced Virology was established in 2019 in the Bio 360 Life Sciences Park, Thonnakkal, Trivandrum by the Government of Kerala. It is meant to work on research, diagnosis and management of emerging and re-emerging infectious viral diseases. The institute is to strengthen epidemic preparedness, rapid response and risk communication to the public. It is to have bio-safety level measures to handle high-risk viruses, Bio-safety Level 3 initially and eventually to Level 4. The functioning of its activities was declared by the Chief Minister on October 15, 2020. The campus has a Phase IA prefab building of 25,000 sq.ft. and a Phase IB main building of 78,000 sq.ft. The Governing Council is responsible for the overall administration of the Institute; the Chief Minister of Kerala is its Chairperson and the Minister for Health and Family Welfare is ex officio Vice Chairperson. Its ex officio members include the Chief Secretary of Kerala, the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Director of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune. Its eight departments are Clinical Virology; Viral Diagnostics; Viral Vaccines; Antiviral Drug Research; Virus Applications; Virus Epidemiology, Vector Dynamics and Public Health; Virus Genomics, Bioinformatics and Statistics; and Basic and General Virology.