The Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre (TCC), which was established at Madras (Chennai) in 1956 (under the joint auspices of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Government of Tamil Nadu, the World Health Organization and the British Medical Research Council) to undertake studies on the domiciliary application of chemotherapy in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, was renamed as the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC) in 1978, in keeping with the expanded scope and widened sphere of its activities. Many of the research findings of the Centre have received world-wide recognition and acceptance and some of them have had a significant impact on the formulation of tuberculosis control programmes in Asia, Africa, South America and some parts of Europe.

In the last 50 years at TRC, more than 100000 TB patients have been screened and 15,000 patients enrolled to various clinical trials.The basic concepts that underpin the globally implemented DOTS strategy were evolved at the Centre through a series of trials. The Centre is also recognized for post-graduate training leading to the Ph.D. degrees in bacteriology, biochemistry, immunology and statistics by the Madras University and by the Inter-University Board of India and Sri Lanka . It is also a training centre for WHO fellows, as well as medical undergraduates and post-graduates of the University of Madras and of the neighboring states.

NIRT (TRC) coordinates nation wide surveys to assess the prevalence of drug resistance to anti-TB drugs and also provides quality assurance to the laboratory component of the national programme.

Development of cost effective, user- friendly treatment regimens for all forms of TB
Studies on the chemotherapeutic and behavioural aspects of HIV-TB
Studies on RNTCP/NACO research priorities to support the national TB and AIDS control Programmes
Vaccine trials for assessing the safety and efficacy of candidate HIV vaccines
Molecular and immunological aspects of TB pathogenesis and development of diagnostics.

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NIRT is a declared WHO Collaborating Centre for TB Research and Training and a Supranational
Reference Laboratory for Mycobacterial Microbiology
An International Centre of Excellence in Research (ICER) has been established at NIRT in
collab

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