Profile

The Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology of Kannur University was established in the year 2000 at Palayad, Thalassery. The Department conducts M.Sc. programmes in Biotechnology Microbiology and Computational Biology and is a Centre of excellence in Biosciences with Ph.D. / Postdoctoral programmes and research projects funded by state, national and international agencies.

We have created our own niche in the academic and research field, with9 permanent faculty members, one Emeritus Scientist. A Kerala State Government sponsored Centre for excellence: the Inter University Centre for Excellence in Bioscience (IUCB) functions in association with the department. With a 12.5% success rate in JRF-NET examinations our students pursue doctoral studies in several national and international institutes/ universities like the University of Rome, Seol University Korea, University of Hamburg, The Catholic University, Belgium etc. Our alumni are postdoctoral fellows/ scientists at University of New York, The Reiken Centre, Japan, IISER, NIT and Central and State Universities as well.We have established ourselves as researchers in the areas of Structural biology, Microbial bioprocessing, Plant Stress biology, Microbial antibiotics & Endocrinology with more than 30 PhD, more than 150 publications (Imp. Factor ranging from 1-5: citation index 0-60) and 5 patents.  The department has attracted research funding amounting to 679.2 lakhs from National Agencies like DBT, DST, UGC and the State Govt. and 200 lakhs as faculty research funding. Our major facilities include a Bioinnovation center set up with the funding from RUSA, LCMS, ITC, HPTLC, Animal house, Bio safety Lab etc. We house 5 Post-doctoral fellows and 35 Research Scholars. International Collaboration with CONACYT, Mexico under India – Mexico collaborative programme (42 lakhs) and DBT network programme (79 lakhs), KBC project (22lakhs) and DBT project (85 lakhs) have been awarded to the Department.  

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Strengths of the Department

1. Reputed department in Kannur University and renowned among other Universities in Kerala and India. R and D activities of the department have visibility at national and international level.
2. Eight faculty members are PhD holders and have postdoctoral experience abroad.
3. Collaborative research among the faculty of the Department and other institutes has led the Department to become a reckoning  center for interdisciplinary research
4. The Department is one of the few centers in the country working on Structural biology of bioactive molecules and Ayurvedic Biology.
5. Well-equipped laboratories are available to pursue advanced research. A Biosafety lab and animal house are attached to the Department
6. Department has active collaborations with academia and industry both within the country and abroad
7. Department has attracted sufficient funds for  purchase of equipment and consumables through externally funded projects
8. Several major research projects are implemented in the department and every year about twenty research papers on an average are published from the department.
9. We have research programmes partially funded by the industry also.

10. Faculty members have received patents and awards as recognition of their contribution to research

The Department with three post graduate programs in Biotechnology , Microbiology and Computational Biology has adequately qualified faculty who are exposed to international level of training in various aspects of study. The department is supported by various state and central government schemes like DBT-BIF (DBT, Govt. of India),DST- FIST( DST, Govt. of India), SARD-KSCSTE (Govt. of Kerala), UGC (Govt. of India) special fund for potentially excellent departments and individual faculty members are supported by extramural funding from the DBT, DOEAC and KSCSTE. The department in a short span of 20 years has received many acclamations in terms of publications and in training students who are now pursuing research/ employed at various international and national institutes.