About the Department
Biotechnology is at the forefront of the knowledge economy. In its broadest sense, it is the
commercial exploitation of living organisms or their components. Traditionally, these technologies have encompassed industrial microbiology and dealt with ancient processes such as the brewing industries or the microbial production of cheese, beer, vinegar and yoghurt. In the last few years there has been a new avalanche of genetic and protein information that has become available with equally impressive advances in transgenic and animal cloning technologies.
In this light, biotechnology has broadened its scope and is poised to make significant
impacts on our health, nutrition and the interaction with our environment. Biotechnology
embraces the new plant and animal transgenic technologies, and the recombinant DNA
techniques now used routinely to introduce precise and specific improvements in all the living
organisms.
The undergraduate program emphasize on a strong grounding in the biological and
engineering basis of biotechnology, as well as the new technologies. Instruction is provided in
the areas of Fermentation Technology, aspects of Medical Biotechnology, Down-stream
Processing, Microbial biotechnology, Bionanotechnological, Plant and Animal Biotechnology. In
addition, the Specialization also includes courses in managing technology and a wider
appreciation of the social, legal and ethical place of biotechnology in society.