LASAI

About LASAI

Laboratory Animal Science Association of India

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“Laboratory animals are the valuable tools that work as models necessary to search and explore the mysteries of our biological system including awareness on nature and cure of human and animal diseases. Henceforth, the health and wellbeing of these experimental models becomes imperative in generation of reliable and consistent research findings”. With this notion, during 1980s, the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, extended its financial support to some of the Indian laboratories including Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow to develop and expand standard infrastructure for establishing laboratory animal facilities on scientific lines. It was the year 1988, when a group of biomedical scientists working with experimental animals at CDRI were inspired to bring advancement in the housing and husbandry conditions of laboratory animals with a view to enhance the quality and standards of biomedical research by use of good quality animals.

However, this motive required a foundation where the issues of common interests, for both, the scientific research as well as the experimental animals could simultaneously be discussed and acted upon. Perhaps, this visionary mission, for the first time in India, led to the genesis of a dynamic scientific and technical base, viz. Laboratory Animal Science Association of India (LASAI) with a mission of an overall development of laboratory animal science and scientific culture in the country. Since, the CDRI, Lucknow, being a premier research organization and a nodal agency in the area of drug development and research functioning under the ambit of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, played a crucial role in establishing the LASAI; this institute became the Headquarter and registered office of this Association. Dr. K. R. Bhardwaj, then Head of Division, National Laboratory Animal Centre, CDRI, because of his pioneering role in taking the lead and augmenting the status of laboratory animals in the country, was unanimously elected as the first Founder President of LASAI. Since its inception, this Association has been functioning efficiently for the cause of scientific endeavors in general, and laboratory animal welfare and ethics in particular, and has achieved several milestones in this discipline.