Realizing the potential of various applications of molecular biology and biotechnology, a Biotechnology Centre with an M.Sc. degree program was established at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar with the aim to bring together scientists from different disciplines, whose expertise encompassed fundamental areas of life science including Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology, Botany, Plant Physiology, and Plant Breeding. This centre was upgraded to the Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology (BMB) in 1997 in the College of Basic Sciences and Humanities. The department was renamed as Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MBB) in 2009 and again renamed Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics with the merger of Bioinformatics into MBB in 2014.  In 2022, it became a part of the newly established College of Biotechnology as the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. 

The Department has a great commitment to teaching and offers two (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) degree Courses in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Faculty members of the department are trained in modern areas of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from various internationally reputed Institutes and are actively involved in teaching and research. Teaching takes place on modern premises and in laboratories with advanced equipment and has a high proportion of face-to-face teaching, including group studies and laboratory work and is continuously adapted based on current research. Students in these degree programs strive to construct a broad foundation of knowledge across the major disciplines of biology and combine this knowledge with an increasingly analytical and reflective approach to learning. Because of broad training in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and rigorous cross-training in cognate disciplines, such as bioinformatics, microbiology, biochemistry, statistics, plant physiology, genetics and plant breeding students are well-positioned to apply to professional and graduate schools or work in a broad range of government regulatory agencies, clinical or research-focused industries and other careers that require the union of strong analytical and technical skills. There is also a great deal of focus on components that prepare them for professions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and food industries in areas such as patents, innovation, legislation related to molecular biotechnology and start-up of biotechnical companies. Since its inception, the department has played a pivotal role in the formation of several successful students who are presently engaged in research at several institutions of national and international reputations. Besides this, Biotechnology forms an integral part of the curriculum of UG and PG students of different disciplines from Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences and Basic Sciences. New course curricula as per ICAR-Broad Subject Matter Area Committees (BSMA) is followed. 

Several research teams operate at the Department of MBB, that share a common philosophy based on a multidisciplinary approach to research in the field of molecular Biology, with contributions from plant tissue culture, transformation and genetic engineering, molecular markers and marker-assisted selection for biotic & abiotic stresses & quality traits, enzyme technology and microbial biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, nano -biotechnology, immunodiagnostics, and biosensors. The Department has collaborations with several world-leading research teams and conducts both basic and applied research. Besides, more than 40 research projects worth Rs. ~20 Crores have been obtained since inception, from outside funding agencies such as NATP (ICAR), the Rockefeller Foundation, U.S.A., DBT, DST, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Food Processing Industry, GOI and CSIR etc. The Department is also involved in a university-level NAIP-ICAR project for commercialization of technologies developed in the Department. The department has earned three patents and twelve have been filed.

Last Updated :-Fri, Jun 30 2023