Kolkata, Dec 30 (IANS): The CSIR-affiliated Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) here is planning to set up an incubation hub in its second campus to engage with industry, officials said on Wednesday.

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Y.S. Chowdary will inaugurate the extended campus on January 26.

Chowdary visited the institute on Tuesday and launched its new website. IICB comes under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier national research and development organisation.

According to senior principal scientist G. Suresh Kumar, who heads IICB's business development division, the minister expressed interest in inaugurating the second campus in Salt Lake on January 26.

"We are planning to set up an incubation centre inside the extended campus to engage with industry and translate our inventions into technologies for public use. Further, it will also act as a hub for industries to use our facilities on a hired based. The extended campus will be inaugurated by the minister," Suresh Kumar told IANS.

In his tweets, Chowdary stressed on promoting and translating the novel diagnostic technologies developed by the institute.

"Witnessed an Impressive array of bio-chemical research work at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkataa ranging from biomarkers for early tumours detection, chronic leukaemia, cardio-kits to dip-sticks for endemic diseases... time for promotion, translation and quantification of these technologies for public purpose... in a time-bound manner."

In the Nature Index report 2014, IICB bagged the first position among all the CSIR laboratories with regards to research output in life sciences discipline.