Department of Biotechnology, Jamia Millia Islamia was established in the year 2008 in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. The Department offers graduate, masters (semester system) and Ph.D. degrees in biotechnology. Prior to it, from the year 2001-2007, courses at the level of Graduate (B.Sc. Biotechnology) and Masters (M.Sc. Biotechnology) were running in the Department of Biosciences of the same university. At present, its student intake capacity is 30 and 20 for M.Sc. and B.Sc. courses, respectively. Seat to applicant ratio for B.Sc and M.Sc. courses was 1:72 and 1:50, respectively in the year 2009, seat available versus students seeking admission. So far six batches of M.Sc. and five batches of B.Sc. have obtained their degrees and are very well placed in the prestigious institutions like IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, MAMC (University of Delhi), AIIMS, New Delhi, NICD, ICMR. More than 40 students have qualified for the UGC, CSIR, ICMR, & DBT, NET JRFs. M.Sc.
Biotechnology program is so popular that in an All India Survey it has been rated among top 15 Biotech Programs (among Public funded Institutions) for the last two consecutive years. The Department is headed by Prof. (Dr.) Arif Ali (PDF from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), who was also the co-coordinator of M.Sc. Biotechnology course since it was started.
Prof. Arif Ali is doing research in area of environmental biotechnology. Other faculty members namely Dr. M. Husain (PDF from USA), Dr. M. Irfan Qureshi (PDF from Italy), Dr. Meetu Gupta (PDF from Germany) and Dr. Kapil Dev are working in field of HIV/AIDS, proteomics & bioinformatics, plant molecular biology & ecotoxicology, and medical molecular biology, respectively. The faculty members have published more than 100 research articles/chapters in journals/books of national and international repute. All faculty members are active in doing advance research funded by various Govt. of India agencies such as UGC, CSIR, DBT, ICMR, DST, etc. with around 25 Ph.D students/Project fellows working on several important research topics. Important achievements of Department of Biotechnology, JMI in the last few months are: 1. start of undergraduate research facility funded by UGC, Govt. of India along with stipend and contingency to the students, 2. Signing of MoU between ICGEB and JMI to carry research in the field of AIDS, and 3. Organization of lecture series with informative and thought-provoking lectures delivered by Indian and American scientists. Even though the Department was created only last year, it has been making rapid progress in terms of generation of extramural research funding (more than 1 Crore with ongoing projects), establishment of teaching labs, installation of teaching infrastructure with multi media aids and other co-curricular activities. A project of Rs. 50 lakh under Special Assistant Programme (SAP), University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India has also been submitted for funding. The department has set up on itself the condition to achieving excellence in the shortest span of time. In this direction the Department of Biotechnology is approaching biotech industries not only to collaborate for product oriented research but also for the placement of the students. Innovative and effective teaching methods are also being adopted. The department is rapidly heading towards achieving excellence to put tough challenge to top-most biotechnology institute in India in near future.
