The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has collaborated with the Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC), a Navratna PSU, to establish the country’s first Single Cell Omics Translational (SCOT) Research Laboratory. Inaugurated on 17 November 2025, this state-of-the-art facility aims to accelerate India’s progress in precision medicine, translational healthcare, and next-generation drug discovery.
IRFC has sanctioned a CSR grant of ₹10.83 crore to support the establishment of this advanced research facility located in the Department of Medical Sciences and Technology (DMST), IIT Madras. The SCOT Lab is equipped with cutting-edge technologies to enable breakthroughs in early disease diagnosis, prognosis, biomarker identification, and drug screening for multiple diseases—including cancer, cardiovascular, infectious, inflammatory, metabolic, and other non-communicable diseases.
The inauguration was attended by senior dignitaries including
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Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras
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Ms. Usha Venugopal, Member (Finance), Ministry of Railways
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Mr. Manoj Kumar Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director, IRFC
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Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras
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Prof. Boby George, Head, DMST
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Prof. Krishna Kumar, DMST
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Prof. Anubama Rajan, Project Coordinator
Leaders from both institutions highlighted how the SCOT Lab will strengthen India’s healthcare innovation ecosystem by integrating engineering, medicine, and molecular sciences.
The facility is expected to play a transformative role in drug discovery, early diagnostics, personalized therapeutics, and functional genomics research. It will also serve as a national training hub for clinicians, researchers, engineers, and students, building a skilled workforce in single-cell biology, computational biology, and translational medicine.
Expected Outcomes:
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Identification of novel biomarkers for early disease detection
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Improved drug and vaccine discovery platforms
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Personalized therapeutic strategies through single-cell profiling
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Integration of molecular-level insights with clinical data
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Capacity building through national-level training programs
This collaboration marks a significant step toward advancing India’s capabilities in precision medicine and next-generation healthcare research.
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