Brief History of the Centre:-
The centre was instituted by ICMR with the broad objective of undertaking computational studies in the realm of reproductive health. Recently, we have been funded by the Department of Biotechnology to establish "Centre for advanced research in bioinformatics and computational biology for woman and child health". Our focus is to develop high quality, manually curated disease-centric databases and generate testable hypotheses to address emerging global health issues. We also offer support for collaborative research and training on bioinformatics-related topics to academic institutions.

Approved Objectives of the Centre:-
1. To collaborate and develop networked linkages with clinicians working in the area of woman and child health with an aim to facilitate electronic data capture and analysis of the clinical data. Based on these linkages, R & D activities will be initiated on diseases such as PCOS, Endometriosis, Cardiovascular diseases, HIV, Metabolic Syndrome, childhood TB etc.
2. To develop high-quality, manually curated, disease-specific online databases and customizable algorithms for data mining. These datasets, softwares and technical infrastructure will be made accessible to clinical and research groups both within and outside the institute for maximizing the utility of the resources and facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of health informatics.
3. To actively engage in education and outreach activities for academicians, clinicians and researchers through lectures and hands-on workshops on various aspects of computational biology and bioinformatics.

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• Full Name:   Dr. Susan Thomas
• Tel:   02224192107
• Email:   thomass@nirrch.res.in
• Location:   Biomedical Informatics Centre, ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health, Jehangir Merwanji Street, Parel, Mumbai, India Pin: 400012
• Website:   https://www.nirrh.res.in/bic/
• Twitter:   https://twitter.com/bicnirrh