The institute was founded in 1918 by Sir
Robert McCarrison. It was originally a single room laboratory at the Pasteur Institute,
Coonoor,
Tamil Nadu for the study of
Beriberi, and was called the Beri-Beri Enquiry Unit.[14] McCarrison was invalided to Britain from 1920–1922, and in 1923 the enquiry was axed on financial grounds. It was restored two years later as the Deficiency Disease Inquiry, which McCarrison headed from 1925–1929.[15] The scope of the laboratory expanded to include all deficiency diseases, and around 1928–1929 became the Nutrition Research Laboratories (NRL), with McCarrison as its first director, until his retirement in 1935, when he was succeeded by Dr. W.R. Ackroyd.[14][15][16] The facility moved to
Hyderabad in 1958 and in 1969 was renamed the National Institute of Nutrition.[14]
The National Centre for Laboratory Animal Sciences (NCLAS) was established in India in 1957 for spreading knowledge on Care, Breeding, Management and Experimentation using laboratory animals in biomedical research. It started as a unit called Laboratory Animal Information Service (LAIS) at the Indian Cancer Research Centre, Bombay, in 1957 and this unit was later shifted to National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad in 1976. it was renamed then as Laboratory Animal Information Service Centre (LAISC). In 1998, during the 7th Five Year Plan, additional support came from Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, which helped the unit to become the NCLAS. On 5 January 2016, the NCLAS is merged with NARF-BR and the former Unit becomes the NIN-animal facility.[35] The scientists of NCLAS Developed obese and diabetic mutant rat models: WNIN/GR-Ob, WNIN/Ob, WNIN/Ob-IGT, to serve as pre-clinical animal models in drug development for chronic diseases like Obesity and Diabetes. Established a state of the art non-human primate facility with provision for experiments based on monkeys.[33][34] NCLAS also came into the limelight due to the WNIN/Ob obese rat strain which is the heaviest inbred rat model available.[5] It has been reported to reach up to 1.47 kg in body weight[36] and shows various signs of increased DNA damage and significantly decreased lifespan.[6]
NIN and FSSAI
The
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) largely sources science-based knowledge and information for formulating the food regulations in the country. Many scientists of NIN are a part of various committee, panels and scientific groups that guide the FSSAI. The director is the co-chair of the three member panel that is looking into upcoming the front-of-pack labelling regulations.[37] The FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting
public health through the
regulation and supervision of
food safety.[37] The FSSAI has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in
India.[37]
Education
NIN offers advanced education courses and MS-MD-PhD program(s) for nutrition, biochemistry, dietetics and laboratory animal sciences. The Centre is recognised by
Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences and
Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences for pursuing post graduation in Applied Nutrition. Recently NIN has started awarding Research Fellowships to the toppers in the MSc course to pursue PhD in the institution.
The institute is well recognised by
Osmania University,
University of Hyderabad,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, for pursuing
PhD in various streams of Life Sciences especially
Biochemistry and
Nutrition.
The institute has trained over 1600 health professionals from more than 35 countries.
More than 150 candidates have successfully obtained PhD and MD degrees from NIN.
Achievements
Assessed dietary intake of individuals, house holds and nutritional profiles of different communities through periodic surveys of NNMB in 10 states.
Suggested strategies to identify high risk pregnancies in rural areas of India. These were included in the National Reproductive and Child Health Program.
Demonstrated TheraCyte Pancreatic Islet Transplantation technology in Primates and Rodents.
Commercially delivered double fortified Salt – Tata Salt Plus, priced at an economical rate of ₹20 (25¢ US) per kg, is an iodine plus iron fortified salt, developed by double fortification technology. This technology was offered to
Tata Chemicals under a long-term MoU after due studies on bio-availability across the population strata conducted and published by NIN.[38]
Exploded the protein myth and highlighted calorie gap as the major bottleneck for healthy growth of children.
Developed simple and sensitive biochemical indicators for assessment of vitamin nutritive and pathogenic mechanisms of various nutritional deficiency syndromes.
Established growth norms for Indian children.
Emphasized the importance of growth monitoring for early diagnosis and appropriate management of protein energy malnutrition.
Generated database on nutritive values of over 650 Indian foods, which is used by various national organisations, planners and academic research institutions
Formulated Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for Indians.
Developed food based Dietary Guidelines for Indians.
Developed National Nutrition Surveillance system (NSS-Triple A cycle of Assessment, Analysis and Action) to serve as an early warning system about nutrition problems.
^
abSinha, Jitendra Kumar; Ghosh, Shampa; Swain, Umakanta; Giridharan, Nappan Veethil; Raghunath, Manchala (2014). "Increased macromolecular damage due to oxidative stress in the neocortex and hippocampus of WNIN/Ob, a novel rat model of premature aging". Neuroscience. 269: 256–264.
doi:
10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.03.040.
PMID24709042.
S2CID9934178.
^Fernandez-Rao, Sylvia; Hurley, Kristen M.; Nair, Krishnapillai Madhavan; Balakrishna, Nagalla; Radhakrishna, Kankipati V.; Ravinder, Punjal; Tilton, Nicholas; Harding, Kimberly B.; Reinhart, Greg A.; Black, Maureen M. (2014). "Integrating nutrition and early child-development interventions among infants and pre-schoolers in rural India". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1308 (1): 218–231.
Bibcode:
2014NYASA1308..218F.
doi:
10.1111/nyas.12278.
PMID24673168.
^Dutta, R. C. (24 May 2012). "In search of optimal scaffold for regenerative medicine and therapeutic delivery". Ther Deliv. 2 (2): 231–4.
doi:
10.4155/tde.10.100.
PMID22833949.
^NARF-BR, ICMR.
"NCLAS". NARF-BR. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
^Sinha, Jitendra Kumar; Giridharan, Nappan Veethil; Raghunath, Manchala (2012). "Can systemic and central IGF1 and BDNF levels play a role in decreasing the longevity of WNIN obese mutant rats?". International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience. 30 (8): 648–49.
doi:
10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2012.03.253.
S2CID221849429.