College of Biosciences and Technology

The College of Biosciences and Technology was established in the year 2001 with a basic intention of facilitating the initiation of young students in the field of medical biotechnology, by imparting them quality education and further training them to take up either a research career or get recruited in the relevant industry or hone the skills to become successful entrepreneur.

Medical Biotechnology is a specialized disciplines dealing with the understanding & use of living cells or any biomaterial and its derivatives in health and diseases. It has an interdisciplinary approach that combines the knowledge of fundamental sciences including cell biology, biochemistry, genetics and many others for its application in the advancement of medicine in terms of disease diagnosis and development of therapeutics, neutraceutics etc. Therefore, it is considered to be the growing technology of the 21st century and has promising future to enhance the quality of life and environment.

vision

To nourish and nurture the young, creative and innovative minds to develop high quality professionals in the field of biotechnology and health sciences leading to the significant contribution for the betterment of mankind and mother country.

Mission

• To be a centre of excellence in the field of medical biotechnology through imparting need based quality education and training in relevant areas of biological and health sciences
• To provide a common platform to students and other stakeholders with the diverse academic backgrounds and familiarize them to a new horizon of medical biotechnology through quality education, training, research, extension and outreach activity.
• To be a premier institute in terms of cutting edge research, providing state of art facilities and produce creative, competent scientist, researchers, technologist and entrepreneurs in the field of medical biotechnology.
• To train the next generation medical biotechnologist to serve health care system of nation especially of rural population as well as inculcate values & ethics among all its stakeholders and ensure transfer of technology from laboratory to land. 3

Goal

The Centre is desirous of becoming one of country’s premiere Institute. The primary focus is education and research with relevance to the practical world as a guiding principle. This Centre has envisaged interdepartmental multidisciplinary programmes and laboratories. The centre, despite having strong research base, desires to extend beyond traditional boundaries. It seeks to be a pulsating temple of science from which intelligence, knowledge and wisdom disseminate.

Objectives

The Centre was established to;

• Integrate various research and other activities in Biotechnology with Dr. Balasaheb Vikhe Patil Rural Medical College and Rural Dental College.
• Screen plants, microbes and other biological sources for bioactive molecules - in particular those useful as anti-cancer agents.
• Develop transgenic crops that can express human therapeutic molecules and resist stress like drought and soil salinity.
• Apply biotechnology for sustainable use of available bio- resource to solve the problems of nutrition and livelihood.

The Faculty

The faculty of this Center is well trained and possesses relevant skills to conduct research and provide interdisciplinary training in fundamental areas at the forefront of medical biotechnology. We aim to cultivate a research environment that will also foster the advancement of the local and national biotechnology industry.

Curriculum Highlights

• Core subjects: Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology includes Basics and Medical Microbiology
• Biotechnology – Genetic Engineering, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Animal Tissue Culture, Basics of Bioinformatics, Industrial Biotechnology
• Hands on practical in each subjects
• Dissertation as integral part of curriculum
• CBCS pattern offers elective subjects: Clinical research, Developmental biology, Human genetics
• Credit system evaluates CGPA

Laboratories

The Center has the following laboratories with state-of-art equipment:

1. General laboratory for microbiology and biochemistry studies
2. Critical laboratory for molecular biology and genetic engineering studies
3. Tissue culture laboratory for in vitro studies
4. Bioinformatics laboratory - software package for sequence comparison, restriction enzyme site identification, primer design, and partial protein characterization.

Animal House

As part of creating the most suitable environment for encouraging and strengthening fundamental research, the University has built a fully equipped, modern Animal House with a floor area of 6,000 Sq.Ft. in strict accordance with the CPCSEA guidelines - the first one of its kind in Rural India.

The house is centrally air conditioned, humidified and maintained as totally sterile, with a capacity to hold at least 100 rodents and 100 mammalians. The House is also equipped with an Operation Theatre, experimental & clinical laboratory, separate breeding rooms, sick rooms, quarantine rooms etc. The animals are housed species wise in separate rooms in polycarbonate cages with supply of sterile water and automatic feeding and drainage system. Waste disposal is done through a special incinerator as per norms of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Major Thrust Areas of Research

1. Genomics
2. Infectious Diseases
3. Immunology
4. Plant Biotechnology & Cellular Biology
5. Drug designing & Bioinformatics
6. Herbal & Food Sciences

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Genetic analysis of HLA polymorphism in tribal and non tribal population of Maharashtra, India: A pilot study in collaboration with Drake University, USA
• Evaluation of in vitro anticancer potential of some medicinal plants against various cancerous cell lines.
• Biofilm formation ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from various clinical specimens and anti-biofilm ability of Lactobacillus species against multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
• Plasmid Profile Analysis of Multidrug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from rural tertiary care hospitals of Western Maharashtra.
• In vitro inhibitory effect of G. glabra and T. cordifolia plant extracts on infectious Pathogenic organisms.
• Assessing the effects of Donor variability on the quality and efficiency of Umbilical Cord derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells used for therapeutic applications.
• Assessing the osteogenic potential of curcumin using stem cell differentiation assays.
• In vitro evaluation of anti biofilm activity of crude natural extracts against multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas sps. obtained from pus sample.
• Pharmacological evaluation of two medicinal plants of Ahmednagar district.

COLLABORATIONS

We have various Collaboration for Academic Programs and Research and Development Activities with the following organizations:

International : Drake University, USA

National

1. NCORD Biotech Ltd., Aundh Road, Pune
2. College of Agricultural Biotechnology, Loni
3. National Institute of Virology, Pune (NIV)