Hyderabad: The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad celebrated its 32 years since its foundation as an independent present day campus in Habsiguda in 1987 on Tuesday. In all these years, CCMB has focused on addressing the cutting edge questions in modern biology and developing technologies to fulfil unmet needs of Indians in healthcare, food and wildlife conservation.
Prof Vikram Patel was the guest of honor for the occasion. He is a celebrated clinical scientist; Pershing Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School in Boston, co-founder of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), co-Director of the Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions at the Public Health Foundation of India and co-founder of Sangath, an NGO based out of Goa that works on mental health issues at grassroots.
He delivered the public lecture on Transforming Mental Health Globally through Science and Action at CCMB. He emphasized on the need of research to understand mental health biology and bringing diverse stakeholders – health professionals, policymakers, general public together to destigmatize the issue, and realize the changes. His talk also fit well with CCMB’s focus on combining science and translating it for public good.
CCMB also plans to initiate studies on mental health genomics in collaboration with Prof Patel’s group to understand predisposition of mental illnesses.