The Foundation for Medical Research (FMR) was established in 1975 as a Public trust and is recognised as a national research organisation by the Government of India. It is affiliated to Mumbai University for post-graduate/doctoral degrees. The Foundation has permanent recognition u/s 35(i)(ii) of the Income Tax Act which enables the donors to avail of tax exemption.

FMR practices a combination of basic biomedical and translational research. Its traditional research areas are leprosy, tuberculosis and medicinal plants. Newer focus areas being developed include environmental health and malnutrition.

Pioneering work in neurobiology of leprosy has had significant implications for treatment and nerve regeneration. Field surveys highlighted the re-emergence of leprosy and operational gaps in its control. (Information extracted from the FMR's official website.)

As described by Dr N H Antia and extracted from The Indian Leprologists Look Back Wadala, Bombay: Ackworth Leprosy Hospital Society for Research, Rehabilitation and Education in Leprosy, 1990?: 3, which was transcribed from a tape received on July 26, 1988)

Foundation for Medical Research

84-A R G Thandani Marg

Worli, Bombay- 400 018

The Society for Reconstructive Surgery, Rehabilitation and Research ... was established and the activities of the J J Hospital extended to the Chembur leprosy Beggars home and a leprosy colony at Trombay. This led to the questioning of the cause of these deformities. So one started looking at damaged nerves at operation excising nerves of patients during hand and foot surgery which were totally paralysed. But these were just fibrous cords. This led to the biopsy of funicles of nerves of patients with just minimal symptoms; just some tingling or numbness in one of the fingers and taking a bundle biopsy of that nerve. This demonstrated advanced pathology even under the light microscope.

Thus gradually developed the major studies on nerve damage in the post-graduate laboratories, first with Dr Dastur and later on, on our own. ...

We next looked at the nerve pathology in this mouse model. We also started looking at the very earliest nerve lesions in man and the mouse, and showed that even preclinical healthy contacts of patients also had classical nerve damage. Also that nerve damage in both tuberculoid as well as lepromatous leprosy started in a similar manner with involvement of the unmyelinated fibres and followed by segmental demyelination of the small myelinated fibres.

We also started with immunology as this was the commonest cause of nerve damage. At that time in 1968-70, I decided that I would like to do much more in the field of research. Hence I went for two years to the National Institute of Medical Research to work with Medawar and Rees. Following my return the Tata Department of Plastic Surgery developed its own research laboratories. We had several students working with us, one of whom was Tannaz Birdi, who got interested in macrophage in leprosy. She has probably worked more with this cell in leprosy than anyone else and has shown that it has quite interesting and important functions in this disease. It was at that time that I was offered an Institute at Worli. It was a surgical hospital where the surgeon had died young and the family offered it to us. The Sheth and Godrej families took a bold and enlightened step and agreed for it to be converted into a laboratory for leprosy research. The Foundation for Medical Research thus started in 1975.

For two years Professor Ambrose worked and lived with us to help start this Institute. The Foundation for Medical Research was started with three objectives. To study nerve damage, basic immunology of leprosy and cultivation of M leprae, which had been started at the Tata Department of Plastic Surgery with the help of Prof Ambrose. Starting with about five researchers it has now grown into one of the most important laboratories for leprosy research. The studies of nerve damage and immunology have resulted in the in depth study of the two cells - the Schwann cell and the macrophage. ... The macrophage has proved useful as a means for testing for M. leprae viability and drug testing.

A major effort was made to cultivate M leprae in a defined medium and the cultured organism and its cell wall used as an immunomodulating tool. The publications of Birdi, Mistry and Mahadevan in these fields are well known.

Entry created January 2016