Stanley Browne Research Laboratory
Stanley Browne Research Laboratory (SBL) of The Leprosy Mission Trust India (TLMTI) is a World Health Organization-recognised national drug resistance surveillance centre for leprosy. SBL seeks to address the need for research in different aspects of leprosy concerning basic science, such as immunology and molecular biology, to help answer questions and solve the problems of this disease. SBL is a recognised centre for Ph.D. studies by the Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, Meghalaya. SBL also trains postgraduate students in advanced laboratory research.
Stanley Browne Laboratory (SBL) of TLMTI is involved in national and international collaborative research studies on various aspects of leprosy. Some of the areas of research are: host response to M. Leprae; understanding the mechanism of exaggerated host response (reactions); transmission patterns in the community and households; the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria; and development of an early diagnostic test.
SBL has worked on numerous projects in the past and continues to do so. It is occupied with several projects funded by institutions, like effect:hope, TLM England and Wales, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Leprosy Research Initiative, the World Health Organization, and Department of Bio-Technology (DBT). The Lab has published 32 research papers in high impact peer-reviewed national and international journals since 1993.
SBL works as a referral lab with the World Health Organization, Government of India and the ICMR in a 10-year project on global surveillance of drug resistance in leprosy. The Lab is part of the IDEAL (Initiative for Diagnostic and Epidemiological Assays for Leprosy) consortium.
The Lab has collaborations with various institutes, universities and research centres. Some of them are:
- University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
- University College of London, UK
- Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
- Colorado State University, US
- London School of Hygiene and of Tropical Medicine, London, UK
- Louisiana State University, Louisiana, US
- National JALMA Institute for Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra, India
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India
- Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India
- Blue Peter Research Centre, Hyderabad, India
- Schieffelin Institute of Health and Leprosy Centre, Karigiri, Vellore, India.
- Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
To facilitate training and capacity building, SBL conducts various programmes, such as graduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies. The Lab conducts Ph. D. programme in Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Immunology under Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University, Hyderabad; Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, and GLA University, Mathura. SBL provides six months’ research training and support to graduate and postgraduate science students for their dissertation work. It also provides short-term training and orientation to students and young researchers for laboratory research.