Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR), Manipal University was created on 1st May 2010 by upgrading the virology laboratory of the Department of Microbiology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal into a university department.

Currently, MCVR houses the IDSP-Regional Reference Laboratory For Influenza Virus and the DHR/ICMR Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory- Grade I. MCVR is also the NVBDCP Apex Referral Laboratory for Dengue, Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya; all of which are Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India supported programmes. MCVR is also one of the major facilities for Zika Virus Diagnostics and surveillance in the country. The centre also enjoys excellent working relationship with National, State and District Public health services.

MCVR has strong collaborations with International institutions like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA, WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza Reference and Research at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL), Melbourne, Australia and The Public Health England (PHE), Colindale, UK.

MCVR has the uniqueness of hosting a public service programme on a private platform and in the short span of time it has proven to be one of the best public private partnership in the development of public health infrastructure in the country.

Apart from disease diagnostics, MCVR supports the state and national health services for outbreak investigation and disease surveillance activities. MCVR has been instrumental in confirming more than 150 viral outbreaks, while around 30 outbreaks were investigated by MCVR team in various parts of the country including Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha in the recent past. The AFI Surveillance project under the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) has been implemented in 27 Sentinel hospitals distributed across 10 states of India including Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Odisha in close coordination and collaboration with the respective state health services.