Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics
Hyderabad

Mandate

The mandate of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) is to carry out basic and applied research in DNA fingerprinting and related analysis, to establish DNA diagnostic methods for detecting genetic disorders and develop probes for such detection, and provide training in DNA fingerprinting techniques. The institute helps provide scientific evidence in civil cases and crime investigations through its services.

Campus

CDFD is located in the fastest-growing metropolitan city of Hyderabad, more popularly known as Cyberabad, for its initiative and pioneering role in developing the state during the past few years in the area of information technology.

Research Focus

The research groups are involved in a wide range of research areas in modern biology, including microbiology, disease biology, cell biology, computational biology, developmental biology, genetics, and genomics.

Human Resource

The institute currently has 27 scientists and around 100 research fellows engaged in high-quality research, supported by 41 technical staff and 46 administrative staff.

Key Scientific Achievements

Major achievements in the last 5 years (2017-22) are as follows:

• Drafted the DNA Bill, which is under discussion and consideration in Parliament
• Conducted certification of DNA Examiners. Gazette notification that the Director and DNA examiners of CDFD are empowered as Government Scientific experts to depose evidence in court under section 293 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
• Procurement of CODIS (Combined DNA Index System of FBI), which connects international DNA profiling databases. CODIS is FBI's (USA) program that supports criminal justice DNA databases. CDFD is the only institute in India that has this program. It can be used to compare /match DNA profiles from around the world. CODIS is being used to carry out DNA match statistics when reporting cases to the court of law.
• Established DBT NIDAN Kendra at Yadgir & Raichur. CDFD has established a DBT Nidan Kendra at Yadgir District Hospital and Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences, Raichur Karnataka, under a DBT-UMMID (Unique Methods of Management and Treatment of Inherited Disorders) initiative. The activities being conducted under the program include screening of antenatal mothers attending the district hospital for thalassemia, followed by prenatal diagnosis for prevention of Thalassemia, and screening newborns for five common and treatable genetic diseases. This is an important societal and outreach activity of CDFD.
• Established a DBT National Genomics Core (NGC-CDFD) to facilitate genomics-driven discovery and application and accelerate the ushering in a vibrant bio-economy. The South-central regional core at CDFD, Hyderabad, has been established to provide end-to-end genomics services. Since its establishment, the core has provided more than 115 services to various national institutes/universities and start-up companies, accounting for ~6Tb of data and processing ~12,000 samples. The NGC provides specialized sequencing facilities to diverse sectors of life science disciplines, including healthcare, crop production, forestry biodiversity, and basic research. Importantly, the core is actively engaged with various universities and institutes for the training of manpower and skill development for the utilization of high throughput NGS. In this direction, NGC-CDFD has conducted three five-days’ workshop and over 16 events trained ~600 participants.
• NGC-CDFD has sequenced over ~11000 SARS-CoV-2 whole genomes under DBT’s PAN-INDIA-1000 SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA Genome consortium and INSACOG. The NGC provides specialized sequencing facilities to diverse sectors of life science disciplines, including healthcare, crop production, forestry biodiversity, and basic research.
• The faculty and students at CDFD have been endowed with numerous awards for their scientific contributions, such as the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Tata Innovation Fellowship, DBT National Bioscience Award, B.M Birla Science Prize, G.P Talwar Young Scientist Award, NASI Scopus Young Scientist Award, several travel grants from EMBO, DBT, DST-SERB, ICMR, CSIR etc. for presenting research at prestigious international conferences like the GRC. Several faculty members also serve on the editorial boards of reputed journals, are members or elected fellows of academies, societies, and serve on national task forces.
• The institute has conducted outreach and public engagement events such as its Open Days, participation in India International Science Festival (also organized VigyanYatra), several webinars and seminars by faculty, visits by police officers and Junior Civil Judges, hands-on training in forensic DNA workflow, etc.