Brief History of the Centre:-
In year 2010, the Bioinformatics research initiatives at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur (Himachal Pradesh) started formally with the joining of Dr. Ravi Shankar and subsequent establishment of Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (SCBB) under his supervision. In 2011, DBT BIF was granted to the Institute, which carried out time-to-time training and support programmes for researchers through various workshops. In fact, in 2010 itself SCBB conducted the first ever DBT-funded national workshop on the bioinformatics of next-generation sequencing. This workshop attracted international attention so much that Journal of Molecular Cell Biology (Oxford University Press; IF: 13.4) covered its proceedings as an article. Since then, CSIR-IHBT had been a prime research center for high-throughput computational biology and next-generation sequencing-related research. In coming years, more than 15 transcriptomes were deciphered by SCBB alone, revealing molecular systems of various Himalayan and other species. At SCBB, India's one of the biggest genome project was also run in totally standalone manner. Here a highly complex 3.4 GB genome of the endangered Himalayan species Picrorhiza kurrooa was sequenced, assembled and decoded. In year 2014, CSIR-IHBT Bioinformatics groups was further strengthened by joining of two more scientists, Dr. Rituraj Purohit and Dr. Vishal Acharya. Dr. Rituraj's group started the Structural Bioinformatics Lab which largely studied the natural molecules from Himalayan species. Dr. Vishal Acharya started Functional Genomics & Complex System Lab who studied various himalayan microbes and protein functional aspects. Together, the Bioinformatic group of CSIR-IHBT has published more than 85 publications and more than 15 software. This group has so far generated 20 Ph.Ds who are placed in some very prestigious organizations nationally as well as internationally, ranging from University of Southern California, LA to DuPont International and IIT-Madras. More than 95 students have received training from this group so far. More than 15 funded projects have been run by the Bioinformatics groups, including two Five Year Plan (FYP) national projects. Numbers of institutions have benefited from the Bioinformatics group at CSIR-IHBT through collaborations, which includes University of Jammu, Guru Nanak Dev University, AIIM-Rishikesh, PGIMER-Chandigarh, UAS-Bangalore, CDRI, IGIB. In fact, SCBB, CSIR-IHBT had established the M.Sc. Programme of Central University of Himachal Pradesh. It was one of the first courses, the first science subject, started by the university on its inception. SCBB was involved not only in establishment of M.Sc. Programme there but also designed its course curriculum and ensured regular classes and exams for its first few years until regular faculties were recruited by the university. In overall, the history of the Bioinformatic Research group at CSIR-IHBT has been immensely glorious and valuable in ensuring the support for various research and educational groups within and outside the Institute.

Approved Objectives of the Centre:-
1. UP gradation of the existing facility to enable Training and human resource generation in Big data and Artificial intelligence/Machine learning based research and structural bioinformatics.
2. Databases and Resource Portal on Himalayan Species Genomics.
3. Information extraction (data mining), data analytics and algorithm/software development in computational genomics and system science.
4. Research, Training, Education, Collaborations, and Information & Knowledge dissemination.

---

• Full Name:   Dr. Ravi Shankar
• Tel:   9816699777
• Email:   ravish@ihbt.res.in
• Location:   Studio of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, PS Ahuja Block, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur (HP) 176061 India
• Website:   https://scbb.ihbt.res.in/