Creating industry-ready students

Having devised a unique curriculum, USBT provides research and education based on national values, social awareness

Founded in 1999, the University School of Biotechnology (USBT) at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, offers BTech and MTech course in biotechnology under dual degree program. In the year 2011-12, 20 students were admitted to the MTech and 58 to BTech courses. The admission to the programs is done strictly on the basis of merit adjudged through an All India Common Entrance Test. At present 14 students are pursuing research in the school under the guidance of the faculty members. The university has shifted from its Kashmere Gate campus to the new state-of-the-art 60-acre campus in Dwarka where new GLP compliant labs are being built to attract from the industry funding.

The school has 14 faculty members with expertise in diverse areas of modern biology and biotechnology. The faculties also have collaborations with scientists in India and abroad, and as a result the school has a publication record of over 322 biotech related research papers in the international journals and 192 papers in the national journals in the last seven years. The laboratories are equipped with the latest equipment costing over 4 crore. Total value of new government agencies undertaking sponsored projects commissioned between 2007 and 2012 is 10 crore. The school has 3 crore as extramural funds with projects running in collaboration with DBT, DST, DRDO, AICTE, and UGC.

The school also plans to actively pursue projects and collaborative programs in plant, animal and microbial functional genomics, stem cell biology and industrial biotechnology in the future.

The alumni of the biotech department have carved a place for themselves in prestigious institutes in India and abroad including University of Illinois, Ohio State University, Tufts University, Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University, University of Cambridge, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay.

Fact file | Name of the Department: University School of Biotechnology
Courses: BTech, MTech and PhD in Biotechnology
Coordinator: Prof. Rajinder K Gupta
Website: www.ggsipu.nic.in

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"Our focus is on creating a high value degree and students who are employable by the industry. But the truth is that in the present scenario, the Indian biotech industry has not grown that big so that it can absorb all the students. About 30% of the our BTech pass out students opt to go abroad for MSc/PhD. About 20% opt to join MBA course"

Prof. Rajinder K Gupta dean, University School of Biotechnology

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