Pushing the frontiers of
bio-medical science

Top-ranked research institute in the country

CMC Vellore is engaged in cutting edge research into the causes and treatment of diseases, and collaborates with hospitals and universities throughout the world. It is one of the leading contributors of medical research articles in India. There are numerous research programmes funded by national and international agencies as well as through internal resources.

Contributions in vaccine research

CMC has contributed to bringing vaccines from research to real-world use through clinical trials and public health research. The key contributions include

• Hemophilus Influenza B disease burden studies:
  HiB Probe Study with ICRM/JHU through cohort and hospital based studies played an important role in highlighting HiB  burden and the subsequent vaccine rollout in India.
• InClen network Pneumococcal studies:
  Led by clinical epidemiologists and microbiologists at CMC from 1993 onwards; pivotal in characterising the  serotype specific burden and provided the foundations for PCV introduction.
• Rotavirus vaccines (ROTAVAC):
  Phase III clinical trials, national disease burden estimates, vaccine safety studies and vaccine impact studies. CMC was one of three sites which conducted the Phase III clinical trial of the ROTAVAC® vaccine which was shown to be effective in preventing rotavirus gastroentiritis and other forms of diarrhoea in children.
• COVID-19 vaccines:
  Heterologous (‘mix-and-match’) booster studies and policy-relevant evidence generation.
• Polio and enteric viruses:
  Surveillance and virology research supporting eradication and immunisation strategies. IPV OPV studies describing mucosal immunity after IPV in OPV primed individuals supported the introduction of IPV as part of polio endgame and its use in polio outbreaks.
• Typhoid and other enteric infections:
  Disease-burden estimates, AMR surveillance and disease transmission studies played a key role in NTAGI recommendations for TCV rollout in India.
• Maternal and child health immunisation:
  Operational research to improve vaccine delivery and uptake in low-resource settings

Centre for Stem Cell Research

It is the home of a Centre for Stem Cell Research, funded as a centre of excellence by the Indian government, the Prof. Bhooshanam V. Moses Centre for Research and Training in Evidence-Informed Healthcare and Health Policy; the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory and the Infectious Diseases Training and Research Centre.

Recognition by ICMR & DBT

CMC hosts many conferences and workshops and runs regular courses in research methodology, epidemiology, biostatistics and several other topics. Several CMC departments are recognised by the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) as centres of excellence for research. For example, Hepatology (liver diseases) and Haematology (for thalessemia).

In 2014, CMC was recognised as a Centre of Excellence for Translational Research by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT). CMC is a Centre of Excellence with a collegium of five institutions for clinical research excellence. In 2017, the Clinical Epidemiology Unit was accepted as an external site for the NIH Clinical Trials Course.

Research Office 

In June 2024, a new research office was inaugurated on the Chittoor campus. The space houses eight research staff working on key community health projects.

Read more