National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) was being created under the aegis of Ministry of Chemicals & Fertiliser at Kolkata as a centre of excellence for higher education, research and development in pharmaceutical sciences For the time being, the new Institute will be housed at Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, a premier Institute of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India. IICB today is engaged in research on diseases of national importance and biological problems of global interest, employing sophisticated state-of-the-art technology in keeping with the rapid and unprecedented momentum that life science research has gained globally over the last 50 years. The scientific staff has expertise in a variety of areas including chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, biotechnology, neurobiology, immunology, structural biology and bioinformatics, which promotes productive interdisciplinary interactions. of the major laboratories in India which initiated, right from its inception, multidisciplinary concerted efforts for conducting basic research on infectious diseases, specifically leishmaniasis and cholera, along with the development of technologies for the diagnosis, immunoprophylaxis, and chemotherapy of the diseases. A neurobiology group is involved in research on the development of the vertebrate brain and also the genesis of human movement disorders. Bioactive substances from natural sources and chemically synthesized new molecules are being explored as potential drugs. Other areas being actively pursued are gastric hyperacidity and ulcer, muscular dystrophy and related disorders, macromolecular structure-function analysis, development of targeted drug delivery systems, s***m biology and protein chemistry and enzymology.
