Department of Biotechnology

About Department of Biotechnology

Brochure - Department of Biotechnology

Historical Development:
The Department of Biotechnology at Panjab University came into existence as Centre for Biotechnology in 1989 and in 1994 it was upgraded to full-fledged Department. It started its academic programs with the support from DBT, Government of India to start MSc program. Since then it has produced hundreds of well trained biotechnologists scattered all over the globe.

Academic Programs:
The current five years integrated BSc and MSc program (Hons School) degree in Biotechnology is the flagship program of the department. There is a continual review of curriculum keeping it updated with current developments.

From the year 2023 the admissions to BSc program are done according to the New Education policy (NEP). The students can opt from a wide choice of subjects besides the core subjects to enhance their knowledge in this program.

A six month research project is undertaken by each and every student of the 5 year integrated honours school during their MSc and this gives them the necessary skills to handle challenging problems in research and industry.

Besides the Department also has a vibrant PhD program with most scholars having their own fellowships after clearing the prestigious CSIR-NET, UGC-NET, DST-INSPIRE and other National fellowships.

Research areas:
The research is undertaken in infectious disease biology, cancer therapeutics, plant biotechnology, Human genome analysis for SNP and disease correlations, bioinformatics and structural biology, etc. The most advanced tools of biological research like CRISPR-CAS, advanced cell imaging, genetic engineering, RT-PCR, in-silico analysis, structural biology, cell culture are used and the facilities to do these experiments are available in-house.

Funding:
The Department has been liberally supported by DST (FIST & PURSE) and UGC (SAP) grants and most faculty are liberally funded by National funding agencies for their research.

Collaborations:
Collaborations exits between the Department and with prestigious institutes like NABI, SAS Nagar for joint research and teaching.

Recently the Department has signed a MOU with Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland and Panjab Biotechnology Incubator (PBTI), SAS Nagar for joint research programs.

The faculty have collaborations with CRIKC institutions like IMTECH Chandigarh, PGIMER Chandigarh, for joint research and teaching.

Faculty:
Most of the faculty members have had training from prestigious National and International laboratories and many have received prestigious national and international awards.

Alumni:
The students trained from the department are occupying prestigious positions not only in India but internationally in leading academic institutes, research centres and industry.