About Department

The Department of Biotechnology was started the year 2002. Being the first institution under the Visvesvaraya Technology University (VTU) to recognize the need for an undergraduate technical program in biotechnology, Sir MVIT played a pioneering role in the formulation of the curriculum, starting with the preparation of draft syllabus, organization of seminars/conferences/workshops, initiating industry-institute interactions & so on. Today, the department is well established with an excellent infrastructure and a highly competent team of faculty members drawn from various fields such as Bioinformatics, Plant biotechnology, Microbial biotechnology, Protein biochemistry, Environmental Engineering, Bioprocess technology& Chemical Engineering. Apart from imparting quality education, this Department has distinguished itself in the sphere of R & D activities as well.

Our journey started during 2002, with the 4 year BE program and a humble intake of 30 students.The department obtained recognition as an R & D center by VTU in 2006, and in 2011 the MTech Program in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering was started as well. At the postgraduate level, we offer M. Tech., MSc (Engg.) by Research and Ph.D. degrees.

Over these 16 years, we have developed the department has steadily grown in terms of its facilities, academics, co-curricular and extracurricular activities. With a clear mission and vision, the Department of Biotechnology has moved forward in academia, securing a total of 21 University level ranks. Many of the graduates have pursued and are pursuing higher studies at various Universities in India and abroad like Indian Institute of Science, IITs, NIFTEM, VIT, Amity, North Carolina, Iowa, Warwick Nottingham, Exeter, Massey, Monash, Melbourne, Johns Hopkins, Texas, Georgetown, Georgia, Florida, Carnegie Melon, Upsala, Singapore, Max Planck, Maddison, Utah, Lousiana, Wageningen, Hamburg, Ludwick, etc. Our alumni are working at reputed organizations like IISc, IITs, NCBS, UAS, IIHR, , US-FDA, National Cancer Institute, Quintiles, Bio icon, Syngene, Monsanto, AstraZeneca, Strand Life Sciences, Sami Labs, Cerner, Dell, Ernst & Young, Goldmann Sachs, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, IBM, The Biocon Bristol-Myers Squibb Research & Development Center (BBRC) to name a few. Some of them have even started their own ventures as well, and become successful entrepreneurs. The R & D center has 22 Research Scholars registered for their higher degrees at the dept., and 11 have successfully finished their assignments. MOUs with 7 organizations have been signed for collaborative research activities. Funded projects worth Rs. 2.54 Crores from various funding agencies like KHT-UK, DST, DBT, ICMR UGC, VTU, VGST, KSPCB, BMS-USA etc., have been executed/carried out. DBT-BIG labs and BIRAC funded companies are executing projects worth Rs. 6.5 Crores on the campus. The faculty and students have been actively involved in Research projects in domains like Structural Biology, Bioinformatics, Environmental science, Herbal drugs, Microbiology, Fermentation technology, and Chemical Engineering. The faculty of the department has guided about 150+ UG/PG projects. The faculty and students have published over 76 Research Publications in various National/International Journals and presented over 95 posters at National/International Workshops. The highlight of the department is the establishing an incubation centre, where our BE and M. Tech alumni have set up start-up ventures on the campus for facilitating the conversion of PoCs to Product development and Commercialization.

Over the years, the department has conducted over 8 National Conferences, 65 Student Development programmes, 7 faculty development programmes, 8 curriculum development programmes, 45 industrial visits and 97 forum talks from eminent personalities. Regular Alumni and Parent teacher meets are organized by the department. Over 32 issues of the Department newsletter (Genesis) has been edited and published by students. About 95 prizes have been won by our students at various intercollegiate / inter-university sports / literary / art / cultural competitions