Visakhapatnam: A state-of-the-art laboratory for conducting "groundbreaking research" in areas such as biotechnology, material sciences and cancer biology has come up in a leading academic campus in  Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam. Christened 'Multidisciplinary Unit of Research on Translational Initiatives' (MURTI), the research infrastructure is housed in the campus of GITAM  (deemed to be university) here. 

S Chandrasekhar, secretary, Department of Science and Technology (Ministry of Science and Technology) had on Saturday inaugurated the second phase of MURTI, and said such an ecosystem would enable start-ups, while suggesting that GITAM could allow the lab to be used by local universities and institutions for a nominal fee. 

Interacting with PTI here after opening the lab, located on the ground floor of the department of pharmacy, he also shared that in the last three months, about "150-200 applications have been received under the Under DST's SATHI (Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute) shared and professionally managed, science and technology infrastructure facility can be set up to be readily made accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries, and research and development.

"The government has limited labs. We have about 1,000 labs, national institutes and central institutes, but these do not cater to all researchers. Today, we are happy that GITAM has taken the initiative to build best of the analytical facilities," Chandrasekhar, who ia also a reputed scientist, said. 

MURTI is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, including four sophisticated equipment, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (), high resolution mass spectrometry (HSMS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and 500 MHz NMR, said Raja P Pappu, director (research and development), GITAM. 

The first phase of MURTI was inaugurated in February this year where R&D work will take place in the fields of biotechnology, microbiology, food science and technology, chemistry, physics, environmental sciences and engineering.