It was originally a single room laboratory at the Pasteur Institute, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu for the study of Beriberi, and was called the Beri-Beri Enquiry Unit.

[27][28][29][30][31] The institute is equipped with facilities including animal housing, In vivo imaging, automated electrophoresis, flow cytometry, DNA Microarray, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectroscopy, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, scanning electron microscope, confocal laser scanning microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, DNA sequencers, cryogenic equipment, thermal cyclers, etc.

It started as a unit called Laboratory Animal Information Service (LAIS) at the Indian Cancer Research Centre, Bombay, in 1957 and this unit was later shifted to National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad in 1976. it was renamed then as Laboratory Animal Information Service Centre (LAISC).

In 1998, during the 7th Five Year Plan, additional support came from Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, which helped the unit to become the NCLAS.

[5] It has been reported to reach up to 1.47 kg in body weight[36] and shows various signs of increased DNA damage and significantly decreased lifespan.

[37] NIN offers advanced education courses and MS-MD-PhD program(s) for nutrition, biochemistry, dietetics and laboratory animal sciences.

Recently NIN has started awarding Research Fellowships to the toppers in the MSc course to pursue PhD in the institution.