The Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB) was established in 2002 under the “University with Potential for Excellence” program funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It is an autonomous institute with an affiliation to the University of Pune. Situated in the buzzing campus of the University, IBB is shaping up into a “happening place”. The institute has a mandate with three major activities in the areas of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology:

• Research and Development

• Development of Human Resources

• Development of Interactive Programmes and Infrastructure

The main focus areas that have been identified for research are diabetes, malaria, liver cancer, viral diseases and herbal drug development. Research projects in some of these areas as well as in those related to bio-nanomaterials, biomaterials (hydrophobins), environmental microbiology, marine biotechnology and structural bioinformatics have been initialized. These projects are funded by various national funding agencies such as DBT, DST, CSIR, UGC, ICMR and ISRO. The faculty members at IBB are actively involved in getting independent research grants and in undertaking collaborative projects.

Masters’ level programs have been launched by IBB:

Five Years Integrated M. Sc. Biotechnology / Six Years M. Tech. Biotechnology

These are unique in terms of the course design, contents and implementation. They have been very well received by the student community as evident from the rising number of applications that are received at IBB for the entrance examinations every year.

The M. Sc./M. Tech. Biotechnology course is conducted on the University of Pune campus while the M. Sc. Virology course is conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune at their campus.

Biotechnology and Bioinformatics are highly multidisciplinary sciences. The in-house faculty at IBB includes highly qualified teachers with expertise in various areas such as biological sciences, chemical sciences, computational physics, bioinformatics etc. A large number of qualified teachers and scientists from several other national institutes in Pune are also invited to contribute to the teaching program.

Setting up an infrastructure that would be useful for research as well as training is an integral part of IBB’s mandate. Several departments on the campus of the University as well as some of the educational establishments at Pune have generously been sharing their existing infrastructure with IBB in its initial phase. Simultaneously, IBB is setting up its own independent building and related facilities, the operations of which would commence very soon. Infrastructure facilities such as hostel, lecture hall complex, fiber optics connectivity as well as equipment and laboratory facilities are being created.

Additional information is available at:

 http://www.unipune.ernet.in/dept/ibb