The Postgraduate and Research Department of Biotechnology began its journey in the year 2006. Since its inception, the Department has established itself as one of the premier Departments among academic institutions across India. Teaching and research serve as the two strong pillars behind the success of this department and is instrumental in shaping the careers of bright young Xaverians.
Five years integrated course in Biotechnology intends to equip students with theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary Biology and Biotechnology such that they can contribute to the frontier areas in Biotechnology. The Department generates adequate human resources to meet the requirement of trained personnel in the multi-disciplinary field of Biotechnology both in India and around the world. Meritorious students join the department every year. Not only are they excellent in academics, they are at the forefront in extracurricular activities as well, representing the college in the field of sports and performing arts. Every year, many students qualify national level competitive examinations including CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET), DBT-BET and GATE. After completion most of the students join doctoral research in India or abroad while the others join biotech industries or opt for management studies.
Since 2015, with the induction of Ph.D. program at the Department, the dimension of research has increased exponentially with over 25 scholars having been awarded their Ph.D. degrees under the esteemed supervision of the departmental faculties. Significant research in the fields of Structural Biology, Epigenetics, Cancer Biology, Genomics guided solutions for sustainability; Computational Biology and Bioinformatics are being carried out in the Department. Majority of the faculties have government funded projects as well as intramural research grants to support their research activities and several scholars are currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program.
Currently the department has following full time faculty members: Dr. Uma Siddhanta, Dr. Sudipa Saha, Dr. Aniruddha Banerji, Dr. Jhimli Dasgupta (HOD), Dr. Ronita Nag Chaudhuri (Lab-in-charge), Dr. Priyanka De, Dr. Souvik Roy, Dr. Sayak Ganguli, and Dr. Ditipriya Hazra. The department is well equipped with modern laboratories [Click here for Details].
Apart from that, Professors and scholars often avail tissue culture facilities, cold lab etc. located at the Central Research Facility of the College. Professors receive financial supports as extramural research grants from the funding agencies like CSIR, UGC, DST(SERB), ANRF, DAE(BRNS), MHRD-STARS, ICMR, DBT and DBT(IYBA), DBT-WB and DST-WB etc. Some professors have also received prestigious national and international awards. The department has received and successfully run the infrastructure grant ‘BOOST’ from the DBT-WB during 2014-2017. The Dept. of Biotechnology and Dept. of Microbiology have received another infrastructure grant ‘DBT-BUILDER’ from DBT, India in 2020. There has also been an implementation of an Industry – Academia memorandum of understanding to boost translational research in 2025.
So far, more than 25 research scholars have completed their Ph. D under the guidance of the faculty members of the department. Most of those scholars are currently pursuing post-doctoral research in different prestigious institutes of India and abroad. At present 17 scholars are pursuing doctoral research under the supervision of the faculty members of the department, presenting their findings at national and international conferences and publishing research findings in international and national peer-reviewed journals.
Laboratories and the equipment of the Department are efficiently maintained by the staff members Mr. Abhijit Ghoshal (Laboratory assistant), Mr. Rajkumar Dolui (Laboratory attendant) and Mr. Bidesh Makhal (Laboratory attendant).
| Present | Alumni |
|---|---|
| Anirban Roy | Dr. Maitree Biswas |
| Indira Chakraborty | Dr. Sanjay Dey |
| Priyabrata Singha | Dr. Bani Kumar Pathak |
| Sicon Mitra | Dr. Surojit Mondal |
| Swarnavo Chakraborty | Dr. Shubhangi Agarwal |
| Saptarshi Datta | Dr. Gourab Ghosh |
| Ruchira Das | Dr. Saikat Paul |
| Arnab Pal | Dr. Sonia Bedi |
| Aparajita Chakraborty | Dr. Anagh Ray |
| Sushmita Nandy | Dr. Arnab Purohit |
| Wrick Chakraborty | Dr. Sourabh Sengupta |
| Debava Chaudhuri | Dr. Shriparna Ganguly |
| Sanchayita Roy | Dr. Senjuti Banerjee |
| Indranil Biswas | Dr. Sehnaz Ferdosh |
| Ankita Nanda | Dr. Puja Ghosh |
| Adrija Chakraborty | Dr. Aheli Majumder |
| Nikkita Das | Dr. Aditya Banerjee |
| Dr. Santanu Samanta | |
| Dr. Ankur Singh | |
| Dr. Shrestha Chakraborty | |
| Dr. Preeti Khan | |
| Dr. Indrila Saha | |
| Dr. Peeali Mukherjee | |
| Dr. Sarmishta Mukhopadhyay | |
| Dr. Drishti Mandal |
The Integrated M. Sc course in Biotechnology is for the duration of five years (divided into ten semesters) on completion of which a certificate of Master’s Degree in Biotechnology is provided. The course is delivered in the form of formal lectures, practical classes and discussions of recent scientific literature. The visual mode of instruction is liberally used, with powerpoint presentations being used to impart knowledge. As in the study of any science, practical modules are of utmost importance. Laboratory visits and field trips are organized for providing students with exposure to current biotechnological techniques and for opportunities to study animal and plant biology and evolution. The students of the final semester (Semester X) get the opportunity to pursue a dissertation project to gather hands-on training on advanced research techniques in various fields of modern biological science. The CBCS curriculum has been introduced from July 2018. Recently the syllabus has been revisited to remove the redundancies and the BOS ratified revised syllabus (prepared as per NEP guideline) has been introduced from July, 2023.
The curriculum of the Post-Graduate Department of Biotechnology is based on inter-disciplinary subject combinations. The research objectives of the department are hence quite diverse and often interdependent. Many of the faculties of the department are involved in high-quality research and are regular recipients of Extramural Research Grants and several awards and fellowships.
Research conducted in the department pertains to topics broadly based on:
The department strives to achieve meaningful outputs through research efforts in the above-mentioned topics in terms of high-impact publications.