The fire at a lab of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) in Jadavpur on Monday afternoon has put a “speed breaker” on research in the areas of developing medicines and generic drugs, said an official of the institute.
According to him, chemicals that were developed at the organic chemistry lab over the past 10 years and used for research have been destroyed.
The fire that broke out on the first floor of the 87-year-old institute gutted the laboratory whose in-charge was Ranjan Jana, principal scientist, organic and medicinal chemistry.
According to institute director Arun Bandyopadhyay, the scale of damage is so severe that it could take several months to rebuild the lab.
Another IICB official said Jana had been working at that lab over the past 10 years and he, along with his team, developed several chemicals that were critical to research.
“It is not that scientists always have to buy chemicals for research. They develop chemicals themselves. When those go up in flames, it is a huge loss,” said the official.
The research interest of Jana includes development of privileged medicinal scaffolds, which is the key step in the drug discovery programme.
Sources on the campus said the fire had put “a speed breaker” on research.
A research scholar who worked in the lab that has been gutted told The Telegraph: “It is difficult to quantify the loss. All I can say is that it is massive.”
A forensic team from Lalbazar visited the affected part of the building on Tuesday and collected samples.
An officer said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.
The fire-ravaged lab will be renovated with fireproof insulation materials to prevent recurrence of such damage, said director Bandyopadhyay.
All organic chemistry labs on the first floor will be renovated in phases, he said.
