Focused on molecular therapeutics

A host of industry and government sponsored projects foster a research-centric environment at University of Hyderabad

The department of biotechnology at University of Hyderabad's school of life sciences establishes itself in the fifth position this year. The popularity of the university is visible from the high volume of applications received for the limited seats in each of its courses. This is especially evident by the 968 applications received for the 18 seats allotted for a PhD in biotechnology. The school of life sciences is considered to be among the top two preferred choices for students applying through the JNU entrance exam for higher studies.

Special provisions are made for the final year projects of students such that just two MSc students can work in each lab. Most of the students prefer to continue their higher studies after obtaining their master's degrees. It has tie-ups with several foreign universities in Germany and Malaysia providing better opportunities for students interested in pursuing their PhDs.

An attractive feature of the school is that of the comparatively affordable fee structure in place for the biotechnology courses. All the faculty employed at the school of life sciences are PhDs with more than half of them having more than five years of experience. The university had over eight visiting faculty for the academic year. In-house research carried out by professors and students has seen the university apply for three Indian patents. It is also one of the few universities in India to have a high number of scientific publications, in India and abroad. It has over 110 publications since 2008.

The industry interaction is enhanced by the industry sponsored projects worth 20 lakh since 2008. These projects are from companies like Stempeutics and Heterodrugs. Government sponsored projects from DBT, DST, ICMR and CSIR are valued at 4 crore during the last four years. The total cash inflow from royalties and license fee generated 198 lakh from 2009-12.

The University saw companies such as Dr. Reddy's Labs and Shantha Biotech come to its campus for placements in 2011 -12.

Fact file | Name of the Department: Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences
Courses: MSc in Biotechnology, Animal biotechnology, Plant Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology; MTech in Bioinformatics, Integrated; MSc PhD program and PhD in Biotechnology
Coordinator: Prof. P Prakash Babu
Website: www.uohyd.ac.in

---

"The quality of education is of very high standard and we receive a wide variety of students from all over India, giving a very cosmopolitan flavor to the college. Also the lab training offered to the students is much more advanced than in any other college"

Prof. P Prakash Babu head, department of biotechnology

---