Coordinator: Prof. R. K. Singh, Department of Botany
Year of Establishment: 2013

Institutional Level Biotech Hub (BT hub) was established in the year 2013 as a special programme for north eastern states of the country with approved financial assistance of 32.50 lakh from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India with a broad purpose to promote education and research in biotechnology, biology, life science and to attract brilliant young students (Higher secondary students/UG/PG level) to build their career in different fields of biological sciences and biotechnology.

The BT hub is providing basic laboratory based training to the budding science students. During last one year, the Biotech Hub has conducted three workshops/training programmes for the Postgraduate students, PhD scholars and faculty members of Life Sciences in which 53 participants were given training. The topics of the workshops were: (i) Spawn Production Technology, (ii) Molecular Techniques, and (iii) Science Journalism and feature writing. Additionally, the researchers of the BT hub also guide the postgraduate students and provide available laboratory facilities to accomplish project work/dissertation. In last one year, 15 students have been benefitted.

As per its mandate, the BT hub is also carrying out its research work on ‘Microbial lignocellulolytic enzymes’ which have many industrial applications and currently an emerging area of research in the field of Microbial Biotechnology. In addition, the BT hub is also supporting research work on Mushroom cultivation and Orchid tissue culture. Presently, the BT hub is supporting four research scholars of the faculty of Life Sciences whose area of research is in accordance with its mandate. The BT hub also extends its facilities and expertise to other researchers. The BT hub is also doing collaborative research with Department of Microbiology, Central University of Haryana and one of the research scholars was financially supported to carry out her research work there for 6 months. The BT Hub also organized invited lectures by Dr. O. N. Tiwari (Senior Scientist, CUBGA, Division of Microbiology, IARI, New Delhi) on ‘Cyanobacterial Diversity’, and ‘Writing of a research grant proposal’. The researchers of the BT hub have published three research papers in last one year on microbial lignocellulolytic enzymes and mushroom cultivation.

Training Programmes /Workshops organized by the Biotech Hub:

  • The BT hub conducted a workshop on Microbial enzyme production by Solid State Fermentation” from 30 May – 01 June, 2016 for the students of M.Sc. Botany.
  • The BT hub organized another workshop on “Spawn Production of Oyster Mushrooms” from 08 – 11 Oct. 2016 for 12 participants who were pursuing M.Sc./PhD course in Botany.
  • The BT hub organized arranged participation of 40 PhD scholars and young faculty members of the Departments of Botany and Zoology in a DBT sponsored workshop on “Capacity building in grant writing skills and effective management of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Biotechnology by universities and research institutions in the North East Region” from 28th – 30th September 2016.
  • Biotech Hub is organized its third workshop on “Biostatistics with Softwares” from Jan. 31 – Feb. 6, 2017 for 38 participants including young faculty members and research scholars of the faculty of Life Science. The resource persons of the workshop were (1) Prof. G. P. Singh, Division of Biostatistics, Dept. of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, and (2) Prof. Rakesh Pandey, Head, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, BHU, Varanasi.
  • The BT Hub organized an invited talk of an eminent NASI Professor Dr. B. N. Johri on Fungal diversity on 29 November2016. An interactive session was separately organised on 29 November 2016 for the research scholars of Botany to discuss their research topics for getting his suggestion to decide further course research plan.

Participation in conferences and Seminars:

  • The Co-ordinator, BT Hub participated in an International Symposium on Plant Biotechnology for Crop Improvement (ISPBCI-2017), organised from 20-21 January, 2017 at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.
  • Two research scholars sponsored by BT hub participated in National and international symposium at Guwahati university and Assam University respectively for presenting their research papers. One of the Participants, Ms. Anjali Singh, received Best Oral presentation award.

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