CAReTS, SBV

CENTER FOR ANIMAL RESEARCH TRAINING AND SERVICES​ (CAReTS)

A Center of

Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV), puducherry

Regional Small Animal Research Facility for Preclinical Studies and Services Established under the joint initiative of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth

About Us

Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth has proven its commitment to translational research by rapid growth in its research capacity. Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth has undertaken a multi-crore joint undertaking with Department of Biotechnology, Government of India to establish a new “Small Animal Research Facility for Preclinical Studies and Services”, located inside Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth Campus, Pillayarkuppam, Puducherry, India.

This new facility is named as the Center for Animal Research, Training and Services (CAReTS, pronounced as carrots). CAReTS integrate the Small Animal Research Facility for Preclinical Studies and Services with modern infrastructure and latest tools towards the establishment of programme-based GLP compliant pathogen-free animal housing and testing. A 30,000 sq ft state of art dedicated facility of such kind, as defined, is unique, in this part of the country in an academic campus. The new facility is unique in its architecture with a sandwich structure supporting administration, maintenance, and laboratory activities independently in the same building designed as per regulatory norms.

CAReTS are engaged in preclinical research; services dedicated for safety assessment, toxicology, and development of medical therapeutics, biomaterial testing, and devices. CAReTS will serve the R & D needs of researchers in both public and private sectors in and around Pondicherry as well as Central and Southern Tamilnadu, India. Pondicherry has more than thirty biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and twelve medical and life sciences research institutions. However, the availability and accessibility of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) animals for quality and advanced animal research in preclinical studies and therapeutics has been a great limitation. This gap is now filled for the benefit of users. CAReTS are, therefore, a unique research initiative to serve this part of the country. 

CAReTS additionally provide medium to high skill development courses for qualified low-skilled technical manpower enabling them for better employment opportunities in this region of the country.
Yet another unique objective of CAReTS is to make available to needy scientists, indigenous disease models that can be valuable for understanding the aetiology of the disease or for testing potential therapies specific to the Indian population.