St.John's Research Institute

Started in the year 2004, St. John's Research Institute was created for the purpose of promotion of research within the academy, as well as teaching of research disciplines. The institute works towards increasing the capacity for research in collaboration with the other institutes in the academy. It tries to achieve this target by facilitating its own staff, as well as staff and students of the academy in terms of planning research, fund raising, legal and statistical management, the generation of reports and peer reviewed publications, and in general, in education and program building. The strategy is to identify and sustain leaders in thrust areas of research, together with strong teams, and to develop infrastructure to support these thrust areas of research, as well as to develop a plan to start formal training courses.

The first initiative of the Research Institute was the setting up of the Institute of Population Health and Clinical Research, which looked specifically at population health and clinical trials. More specifically, this Institute focused on specific areas as defined in its mission - To make a significant impact on Lifestyle Related Disorders and Infectious Diseases in India through basic and clinical research, promotion of evidence based health care and population health research initiatives.

There are Research (focus) and Core (infrastructural) groups in the Institute of Population Health and Clinical research.

Research Groups

Nutrition, Cardiovascular Disease, Infectious Disease, Mental Health, Mother and Child Health, Molecular Medicine

Core Groups

Epidemiology and Statistics, Analytical Biochemistry, Physiology, Molecular Biology, Clinical Trials, Data Management

Key Scientific themes

Requirements of macronutrients (energy/protein/amino acids) in health and disease, Requirements of amino acids in children, Body composition, muscle mass and insulin resistance, Risk factors in rural and urban lifestyle-related chronic disease in India, Mortality patterns and their causes in India, Growth and development of infants and children, Maternal health - requirements of nutrients in pregnancy, Intra-uterine growth retardation, Mental health of elderly, Nutrition and cognition in school children, Requirements of micronutrients (iron, iodine, zinc) in health and disease, Chronic disease and mental health of urban and rural communities, Sociological and anthropological influences on infectious and chronic disease, Epidemiology of Group A streptococcal infection,Epidemiology and immunology of Tuberculosis, HIV- prevention and care.

Research Facilities

Clinical Research Centre with 8 residential beds and 6 investigational beds, Biochemistry (GCMS, HPLC, ELISA, automated analytical biochemistry lab), Biorepository, Clinical physiology laboratory (cardiovascular and autonomic nervous function), Clinical Proteomics (LC-ESI MS), Energy metabolism laboratory (ventilated hoods and whole body calorimeter), Clinical Nutrition Unit with independent research facility, Clinical Trials Unit with Pharmacy, Stable isotope laboratory (IRMS, GCMS), Clean room for IV preparation, Body composition laboratory, Molecular Biology laboratory, Field unit (Palamner, Andhra Pradesh, India) with field research centre, Data management centre, Health Informatics Unit, Statistics Unit

For more information about the St.John's Research Institute, please visit the institute's website: http://www.sjri.res.in/