Preamble:

The Department is one of the pioneers in Marine Biotechnology teaching and research in the country and has had the added distinction of being DST-FIST sponsored (2008-13). It all started off in the year 1988, when the DBT (Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India) identified Goa University as the first institution for running the nationally sponsored HRD programme of M.Sc. in Marine Biotechnology. Thus emerged this fledgling project under the then Department of Marine Sciences, as the 6th nationally identified Centre for postgraduate teaching under the DBT-HRD Biotechnology programmes. Soon arrived the time for it to move on, growing from strength to strength and providing the base for establishment of a full-fledged Department of Biotechnology at Goa University in the year 2003. The programme has been continuously funded to date by the DBT (Govt. of India), right from its inception in the year 1988.

The students, enrolled solely through the DBT-instituted national selection process and hailing from the length and breadth of the country, while bringing in a wave of cultural variety to the tiny state of Goa, were academically nourished in their little nest and flew out with the label of Goa University alumni, bringing laurels to their alma mater as they shot forth in their career path. A glimpse of the whereabouts of a few of them appears through this window: (Click Here)

Encouraged by the success of its flagship Master’s programme in Marine Biotechnology, an M.Sc. Biotechnology programme was introduced in 2013, for which students are selected through the GU-ART procedures of Goa University. Due recognition came from the Government of Goa through the sanction of a new home for the Department in its current location in Block E. (Click HERE to view)

A good percent of our postgraduate students qualify for the CSIR/UGC, DBT or ICMR fellowships and some also secure a very high ranking at the GATE examination.

Thrust areas:

• Applied Enzymology, Genetics and Molecular Biology
• Marine viruses, Bioinformatics of marine bacteria and viruses.
• Marine Microbiology, Biogeochemical processes in mangroves and salt pans, Hypersaline bacteria
• Bioprospecting of halophiles, Psychrophiles and SRB for bioactive metabolites and their biotechnological applications: diversity, bioinoculants, bioremediation
• Hydrolytic enzymes of potential commercial significance from marine microbes, Biological oceanographic processes
• Bioremediation of environmental pollutants, Bioprospecting for bioactive and biotechnologically significant products from marine derived bacteria and halophilic archaea, metal interactions in halophilic archaea and eubacteria
• Biochemical processes, Protein chemistry, Cationic peptides from mangrove and herbal sources
• Algal Biotechnology, Biofuels, Sustainable development
• Microbial Physiology, Immunology, Industrial Microbiology, Agricultural Microbiology
• Microbial and Fermentation Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology and Waste management,
• Biosensor development, Biomaterials, Nanomaterials for biological applications, Fluorescent protein engineering & Light microscopy

Other Information: