Rudimentary studies on aspects of biochemistry in India date back to 1927. But, in the field of Immunology, such studies were started by scholars only 
	   during early 1970s at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Science and Technology was not an immediate priority until 1961 due 
	   to domestic and political conditions in the country. We were then 11 years old since independence and our focus was on economic and social developments. 
	   Gradually, improvements were made in the field and now we have 15 to 20 major groups (small in size) of immunologists in the country, who have made significant 
	   contribution in the field during the last 8 to 10 years. Hence, we anticipate improvements in manpower and infrastructure in the near future

Dhar, Ravi

Surolia, Avadhesha

English

PubMed

Rudimentary studies on aspects of biochemistry in India date back to 1927. But, in the field of Immunology, such studies were started by scholars only during early 1970s at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Science and Technology was not an immediate priority until 1961 due to domestic and political conditions in the country. We were then 11 years old since independence and our focus was on economic and social developments. Gradually, improvements were made in the field and now we have 15 to 20 major groups (small in size) of immunologists in the country, who have made significant contribution in the field during the last 8 to 10 years. Hence, we anticipate improvements in manpower and infrastructure in the near future

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Current status of immunology research in India 
 
Avadhesha Surolia and Ravi Dhar* 
 
National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi-110 067, India; 
Ravi Dhar * - Email: ravi@nii.res.in; * Corresponding author 
 
received July 06, 2007; revised July 09, 2007; accepted July 10, 2007; published online July 10, 2007 
 
Abstract: 
Rudimentary studies on aspects of biochemistry in India date back to 1927. But, in the field of Immunology, such studies 
were started by scholars only during early 1970s at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Science 
and Technology was not an immediate priority until 1961 due to domestic and political conditions in the country. We were 
then 11 years old since independence and our focus was on economic and social developments. Gradually, improvements 
were made in the field and now we have 15 to 20 major groups (small in size) of immunologists in the country, who have 
made significant contribution in the field during the last 8 to 10 years. Hence, we anticipate improvements in manpower and 
infrastructure in the near future.  
 
Keywords: infrastructure; manpower; immunology research; India 
 
Background: 
Literature reveals references to immunology in 1932 
followed by a serious monograph on “The Production of 
Antibodies” in 1949 by Sir F.M. Burnet and Dr. Frank 
Fenner  and the  theory of clonal selection theory of 
acquired immunity published in 1959 [1, 2] which laid 
foundation for a new subject called Immunology.  At that 
point of time, India was a 9 year old democracy trying to 
stabilize itself with its limited resources. Obviously 
research in S and T was not the immediate priority. 
 
It is important to give a brief background of how life 
sciences developed in India after independence. The 
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was 
given the prime responsibility to develop a research base 
for India by the then Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal 
Nehru. University, college and science education was 
coordinated by Ministry of Education from 1961 onwards. 
Subsequently a Department of Science and Technology 
was created in 1971; scientific activity was primarily 
conducted under this ministry.  The intellectual and human 
capital of the country was further streamlined by creation 
of a separate Ministry of Human Resource Development in 
1985 followed by creating a separate Department for 
Biotechnology in 1986.  
 
Birth of Immunology in India 
Immunology in India just like that in other nations, started 
as an offshoot of Biochemistry. Research in the area of 
Biochemistry in India can be traced to 1930s with 
publications related to “isolation of growth promoting 
factors in Bios” [3] to “anticoagulant activity of fluorides, 
citrates and oxalates” to confirmation of classic work on 
“formation of Penicillin by P. notatum from lysine and β-
hydroxy valine”. [4] This was followed by a big gap till 
thirty years later (in late 1960s), a group of dedicated 
biochemists like Profs. P. Sharma, G.P. Talwar, B.K. 
Bachhawat, M.C. Vaidya, D.P. Burma, C. Gopalan, A. 
Sreenivasan, L.K. Ramachandaran and K. Radhakrishnan 
plunged into active research with limited means. In this 
journey, impetus to immunology in India was given by a 
group of scholars from the Department of Biochemistry at 
the Aii India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 
India (AIIMS) in 1970s (example, Lymphocytes bearing 
immunoglobulin determinants in normal human lymph 
nodes and in patients with lepromatous leprosy or Status of 
humoral immune responses in leprosy or mechanism of 
regulation of immune response [5, 6, 7] or an evaluation of 
the immune state in leprosy. [8]) The AIIMS group was the 
first in India to harvest hybridomas (example, Development 
of hybridomas secreting anti-human chorionic 
gonadotropin antibodies. [9] However, references to 
preparation of vaccine against Vaccinia virus can be traced 
to 1952 [10] and subsequently to works of D’Monte and 
Talwar (1967). [11] A brief review on Immunology in India 
and its weaknesses can be traced to Mitchison in 1986. [12] 
 
Recent Achievements 
To gain visibility in the area of immunology, India got a 
chance to host the 10th International Immunology 
Conference in New Delhi in 1998 
(pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr98/l1098/r261098.html). The 
international community got exposed to strengths and 
weaknesses of the Indian immunology scenario. Ever since 
then, a gradual rise in clinical collaborations started, which 
continue to rise till date. In the meantime, over the period 
of last 20 to 25 years, scholars from the All India Institute 
of Medical Sciences, Department of Biotechnology and
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35
Indian Council of Medical Research worked hard to put Indian 
immunology on a serious path. However, while as the quality 
of work has considerably improved, the output is still low. 
One of the reasons for this could be that, most of the biological 
research in India is driven more by the “chemical perspective” 
[13] but this may not be the only reason. Other reason is the 
lack of availability of manpower in the area. It would be 
worthwhile if more members of medical fraternity get drawn 
into the research area in addition to their basic interest in 
patient management. Surprisingly, at the moment, we have 15 
to 20 major scholars working in so many aspects of 
immunology (Tables 1 and 2 see supplementary material) 
while several others use immunology as a tool which has not 
been discussed in this paper. The net outcome is a few great 
peer reviewed publications that could give great competition 
to big laboratories around the world e.g., 10 out of 60 
molecular or protein structures of genomes of infectious 
diseases have been solved in India. This is a great feat indeed. 
One also needs to keep in mind that research infra-structure 
plays a great role in achieving goals.  
 
The world class infrastructure at several organizations 
including at NII need to be further improved and best use 
made of existing structures. In the area of immunology of 
infectious diseases, P3 laboratories are being built or have 
been planned to be built at 10 to 12 places around the country 
so as to handle deadly organisms like Mycobacterium, 
Influenza virus, and HIV-AIDS.  In order to run the show 
while as the number of key players remains more or less static, 
more key players need to jump into fray otherwise this could 
slow down the progress and hamper creation of a great bank in 
immunology research. A significant number of trained 
manpower leave India for their post doctoral studies, but very 
few of them return back in the area of immunology, unlike in 
other fields. The third component which results in lesser 
output is the funding position in the area of immunology. This 
has a bearing on the total spending on education and scientific 
research in India which in 2005 was 3.8 percent of GDP. This 
is too low to push front line research. When compared to USA, 
the finance budget of NIH for the FY 2008 is around US $ 
60,000 million. This matches the total budget of India for 
various activities for full one year under several departments 
including that of health and medical research.  In spite of these 
impediments, collaborators proposals from abroad are growing 
and till we fine tune ourselves with several types of resources, 
it is advisable to prudently continue with multi-pronged 
strategy to give a push to the subject. The status of clinical 
immunology by the Indian scientist is equally worrisome. 
Indian Council of Medical Research has considerably geared 
use of clinical immunology around the country. ELISA tests 
and PCR are increasingly used for detection of several 
diseases including surveillance of blood banks for HIV-1 and -
2 as well as Hepatitis. An immuno-modulatory vaccine for 
leprosy is in market as a part of multi-drug therapy for the 
disease. At a number of places immunogenic studies and 
toxicological studies of several vaccines on small animals has 
become a routine exercise.  Other vaccine developments are in 
pipe line.  Various programs and activities which have been 
going on in the area of immunology and related are of 
biotechnology can be had from some of the following 
websites: http://dbtindia.nic.in/; http://www.nii.res.in/; 
http://www.aiims.edu/; http://www.icmr.nic.in/.  
 
Conclusion: 
We are witnessing a change in the field of immunological 
research in India but at a slower pace due to paucity of scholars 
in the area. One very important filed that needs to grow at 
faster pace is in the area of disease resistance and 
susceptibility. As mentioned earlier, there is a rapid need to 
improve infrastructure and add manpower in laboratories close 
to disease endemic areas so that local diseases and their 
remedies are better addressed. 
 
Acknowledgements: 
Drs. Ayub Qadri, Rahul Pal and  Satish Gupta for giving some 
historical details about growth of immunology during their 
student days in Prof. G.P. Talwar’s and other laboratories at the 
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.  
 
References: 
[01] F. M. Burnet and F. Fenner, The Quarterly Review of 
Biology, 26:220 (1951) 
[02] http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid
=1522512 
[03] B. T. Narayanan, Biochem J., 24:6 (1930) [PMID: 
16744353] 
[04] U. D. Deshmukh, et al., J Postgrad Med., 44:222 (2001) 
[05] R. C. Verma, et al.,  Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis., 
39:20 (1971) [PMID: 4106081] 
[06] P. Jha, et al., Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis., 39:14 
(1971) [PMID: 5106540]   
[07] R. Krishnaraj and G. P. Talwar,  Biochem J., 128:57 
(1972) [PMID: 4343668]  
[08] N. K. Mehra et al., Lepr India, 48:231 (1976) [PMID: 
15165]  
[09] S. K. Gupta and G. P. Talwar, Indian J Exp Biol., 18:1361 
(1980) [PMID: 7228117] 
[10] R. S. Rao,  Indian J Med Res., 40:341 (1952) [PMID: 
3034295] 
[11] B. D'Monte and G. P. Talwar, J Neurochem., 14:743 
(1967) [PMID: 4961470] 
[12] A. Mitchison, Nature, 323:752 (1986) [PMID: 3774003]  
[13] http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar102001/599.pdf  
 
Edited by P. Kangueane 
                                                                  Citation: Surolia & Dhar, Bioinformation 2(1): 34-38 (2007) 
       License statement: This is an open-access article, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in  
any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited. 
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36
Supplementary material 
S. No Broad areas of research Investigator/  organization/ 
Year 
Disease worked I.F Number of 
Publications 
 
>  3 to 20  
 
14 
 
1. #Study of components & mechanisms involved in innate 
immune response. Understand  mechanisms by which the 
innate response modulates the adaptive immune response 
 
Ayub Qadri/ NII/ 1982 
 
 
Jyoti Basu/BI/1990 
Vineeta Bal/NII/2006 
-Mechanism for  immunity against bacteria 
 
 
 
-Innate immunity to TB 
-TLRs in filarial 
 
 
<  7 
 
 
14 $ 
2. #Events leading to activation, proliferation, death and 
homeostasis in lymphocytes (T cells, B cells & NK cells) 
Satyajit Rath/NII /1995 
Vineeta Bal/NII/ 1995 
Anna George/NII/ 1998 
Agrewala/IMTECH/1998 
 
Apurva Sarin/NCBS/1994 
S.Chiplunkar/ACTREC/1993 
-Processing proteins  antigens for presentation to T-cells  
-Mucosal immunology 
-Inflammatory responses & immuno-modulation 
 
 
-Immune activation 
-Mechanism of  Signaling in T-cells 
>  5  
>  5  
<  5   
>  4 to 10  
 
<  6  
>  3 to 5  
60                            
50                             
30                             
27                                
 
25                                
39 
 
3. #Mediators and mechanisms involved in the interaction of 
lymphoid and non-lymphoid cells under normal, pathogenic 
and aberrant conditions 
Satyaji Rath/NII/1995 
 
GC Mishra/NCCS/1994 
 
Sahid  Jameel/ICGEB/1992 
 
Sita Naik/SGPGI/1986 
 
B. Saha/ NCCS/ 1995 
-Mechanism of antigen presentation 
 
-Mechanisms of  T -cell differentiation 
 
-Pathogenesis of Hepatitis virus 
 
-Cellular immunology & immunomoodulation 
 
-Humoral Immnity to Leishmania; & tumour biology 
> 3 to  9  
 
> 3 to  6   
 
<  3  
 
<  3   
 
<  5   
60        
                                    
24 
 
11 
 
30 
 
49 
 
4. #Characterization of cells and mechanisms involved 
in immunological memory 
 
 
Satyajit Rath/ NII/1984 
 
Vineeta Bal/NII/1983 
 
Kanury Rao/ ICGEB/  
 
 
Dinakar Salunke/NII/ 1998 
 
-Immuno-modulation 
 
-Immunological memory 
 
-Genes related to adaptive immunity & activation of 
humoral responses 
 
-Structural biology of immune complexes 
>  4   
 
>  4  
 
>  4  to 20  
 
> 10  
60 
 
50 
 
60 
 
15 
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5. #Genomics and immune response: genes involved in 
immune defects/modulation of immune responses and 
the role of genetic polymorphisms in the immune 
response, disease resistance and susceptibility 
G.P. Talwar/AIIMS/1970  
 
Indira Nath/AIIMS/ 1980 
 
M.C. Vadiya/AIIMS 
 
N.K. Mehra/AIIMS/ 1981 
 
Rahul Pal/ NII/ 1995 
 
 
K. Natarajan/ICGEB/1995  
 
Rajni Rani/NII/ 1989 
 
S. Bhaskar/NII/1996 
 
S. Chiplunkar/ACTREC/1993 
 
Shyamal Roy/IICB 
 
B. Ravindran/ICMR 
-Control of Leprosy & immuno-contraception 
 
-T cell responses in Leprosy patients & clinical stuff 
 
-MHC polymorphism 
 
-MHC Polymorphisms & transplantation immunology 
 
-Auto-antigenic effect of  apoptotic cells in Lupus  
 erythematosus 
 
-Immunology of tuberculosis 
 
-Molecular diversity of HLA alleles & diabetes 
 
-Immunology of  Tuberculosis 
 
-Cancer Immunology 
 
-Immunology of Leishmania 
 
-Immunology of Human  Filaria   
 
>  4  
 
<   3  
 
<   3    
 
>   4   
 
>   2 to 7  
 
 
<  6   
 
<  3   
 
<  2     
 
>  3 to 5  
 
<  5   
 
> 2 to 5  
200 
 
60 
 
30 
 
103 
 
12 
 
 
39 
 
19 
 
5 
 
39 
 
50 
 
25 
Table 1: Basic Immunology. Note: the no. of publications shown here relate to the field of immunology; a low impact factor (I.F.) does not necessarily mean low quality of research. Many 
investigators publish their findings only in very specialized journals and thus can not be compared to other publications of general nature where I.F. is skewed to a higher level. (Legends for 
abbreviations: #=classification as per Nandi and Sarin (2001) [14];  $= work started recently; NII=National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi; BI=Bose Institute, Kolkata; 
IMTEC=Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh; NCBS=National Center for Biological Sciences, Pune; ACTREC=Advanced Center for Treatment, Research and Education in 
Cancer, Bombay; NCCS=National Center for Cell Science, Pune; ICGEB=International Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi; SGPGI=Sanjay Gandhi Post 
Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences; IICB=Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkota; ICMR=Indian Council of Medical Research, Orissa 
 
S. No. Broad areas of research Investigator/ Organization/ Year Progress 
1. Vaccine development 
 
 
 
 
G.P. Talwar/ NII/ 1990s 
Sudhanshu Vrati/ NII/2003 
Sita Naik/SGPGI 
Chetan Chitnis & V.Chauhan/ICGEB/2003 
D.N. Rao/ AIIMS/1998 
M.K. Bhan/AIIMS/2005 
-Anti-hGC vaccine1 
-JEV vaccine2 
-Leishmania 
-Malaria3 
-Novel adjuvants/ delivery systems 
-Rotavirus4 
2. Therapeutics G.P.Talwar/ NII/1990s 
Satish Gupta/NII/1982 
B. Saha/NCCS/ 1997 
-Leprosy vaccine marketed by Cadila Pharma, India 
-Made first Hybridome  
-Immuno-therapy for Leishmania 
3.  Diagnostics Chauahan NK/ AIIMS/ 2005 -Rk-39 ICT test for detection of  Kala Azar 
Table 2: Applied Immunology. 1The scientific validity of the vaccine has been demonstrated, but the vaccine needs to be made more immunogenic by improvement in the adjuvant; 2For up scaling to a local 
industry; 3Ready for Phase I clinical trials; 4under Clinical trials 
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38
 [Interesting publications in the field of Immunology from India] 
1) Lysophospholipid sensing triggers secretion of 
flagellin from pathogenic Salmonella. Nat.  Immunol. 
7(6):583 (2006). [QADRI] 
 
2) MHC class I-restricted presentation of maleylated 
protein binding to scavenger receptors. J Immunol. 
162(8):4430 (1999). [RATH] 
 
3) A vaccine that prevents pregnancy in women. Proc 
Natl Acad Sci U S A. 91(18):8532. (1994) [TALWAR] 
 
4) Differential epitope positioning within the germline 
antibody paratope enhances promiscuity in the 
primary immune response. Immunity. 4:429 (2006). 
[SALUNKE] 
 
5) Differential CD40/CD40L expression results in 
counteracting anti-tumor immune responses. J 
Immunol. 178(4):2047 (2007) [SAHA] 
 
6) A GPI-linked isoform of the IgD receptor regulates 
resting B cell activation. Nat Immunol. 10:951 (2002) 
[KANURY RAO] 
 
7) Resveratrol and curcumin suppress immune response 
through CD28/CTLA-4 and CD80 co-stimulatory 
pathway. Clin Exp Immunol. 147(1):155 (2007). 
[AGREWALA] 
 
8) Role of NF-kappaB signaling pathway in increased tumor 
necrosis factor-alpha-induced apoptosis of lymphocytes in 
aged humans. Cell Death Differ. 12(2):177 (2005). 
[CHIPLUNKAR] 
 
9) Impaired generation of reactive oxygen species during 
differentiation of dendritic cells (DCs) by Mycobacterium 
tuberculosis secretory antigen (MTSA) and subsequent 
activation of MTSA-DCs by mycobacteria results in 
increased intracellular survival. J Immunol. 177(1):468 
(2006) [NATARAJAN] 
 
10) Anti-idiotype-mediated epitope spreading and diminished 
phagocytosis by a human monoclonal antibody 
recognizing late-stage apoptotic cells. Cell Death Differ. 
13(10):1715 (2006) [RAHUL PAL] 
 
11) Immune responses to asexual blood-stages of malaria 
parasites. Curr Mol Med. 6(2):187 (2006). Review. 
[CHITNIS] 
 
12) Transporter associated with antigen-processing (TAP) 
genes and susceptibility to tuberculoid leprosy and 
pulmonary tuberculosis. Tissue Antigens. 49(2):168 
(1997) [MEHRA] 
 
13) Execution of macrophage apoptosis by PE_PGRS33 of 
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is mediated by Toll-like 
receptor 2-dependent release of tumor necrosis factor-
alpha. J Biol Chem. 282(2):1039 (2007). [BASU]
 


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