Inauguration of Research Laboratory on Autistic Spectrum Disorder in PGI

By 121 News

Chandigarh 26^th December:- Autism  which is a complex neuro developmental disorder has a global prevalence of 62 cases per 10,000 people. The incidence of autism is on the increasing trend due to increased stress prenatally in pregnant women as well as advancement of better diagnostic practices in medical science. It has been noted that the children of the parents who are in stressful work like Engineer and Doctor are at greater risk of autism. It is also a great importance as 40% autistic children have associated co-morbidity like epilepsy. The model of for studying autism has not been established in India yet and it is the Neuro Behavioural Research Laboratory (NBRL) in PGI, Chandigarh which is the to establish and standardize it.  This is of prime significance as the model establishment is essential for studying pathology of diseases and for screening new chemical entity (NCE) which ultimately leads to new drug discovery. NBRL has also plane to screened several molecules for autism and among that one molecule is very promising and is steadily advancing forward. NBRL has been established and functioning for more than a year under the supervision of Prof. Bikash Medhi and is situated in Advanced Small Animal Facility, PGIMER, Chandigarh. It has several behavioural instruments like Morris Water Maze, 3 Chamber sociability apparatus, Elevated Plus Maze, Rota Rod, Hole Board, Grip Strength, Open Field, Forced Swim Apparatus; in order to evaluate autism as animal model. The neurobehavioural of animals needs to be analyzed.  This brings in the necessity of software for scrutinizing and interpretation. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India had felt this need and had generously funded for the installation of Ethovision XT 11.5 which is the advanced software for Neurobehavioural Research and other necessary facilities.

NBRL has been formally inaugurated by Prof. Y.K. Chawla, Director, Prof. A K Gupta, Medical Superintendent, and Prof. A Avasthi, Department of Psychiatry, PGI, Chandigarh on 26^th December 2015.  The Director has greatly appreciated the work carried out. The detailed functionality of NBRL was explained by Rakesh Ruhela who is the Senior Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, PGI, Chandigarh.