User:Bicpu

About the Centre

The Centre for Bioinformatics in Pondicherry University was started as Sub Distributed Information Centre of the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (DBT) in 1991. The mandate of the Centre was to provide biological information to the end users. The Centre became a focal point for providing various communication and computational facilities to the users from the university and also from other institutions.

The Centre is offering Masters Program in Bioinformatics (M.Sc) from 2007 which is funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under its scheme of Innovative Program in Emerging Areas. A Ph.D. Programme in Bioinformatics is also offered.

The Centre offered an Advanced PG Diploma course in Bioinformatics with full financial support from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India between 2001and 2008. It is now being upgraded to Network M.Sc. Programme in Computational Biology in collaboration with Anna University and Madurai Kamaraj University. This programme will be first of its kind in the country.

The Centre has also taken proactive role in providing internet support to the community and helped the University in developing the website. The Centre provides training to teachers and students of the University, affiliated colleges and other institutions. The Centre has so far organized 26 National Level Seminars and Training Programs. The Centre took lead in organizing National Seminars in emerging fields like Intellectual Property Rights in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology and Nanosciences & Nanobiotechnology. The Centre has periodically arranged lectures by many eminent scientists working  in  the  areas of bioinformatics and biotechnology. Several professionals from Industry have also delivered lectures on the opportunities and challenges in the sector of Bioinformatics.

The students have modern computing facilities with the latest bioinformatics related software. The Centre has a wet lab facility for the teaching programme and interdisciplinary research. All the facilities in the Centre are available round the clock including a dedicated 8 Mbps internet facility to meet the academic and research needs of the students.

In the past few years, the Centre has taken up research activities in the areas of sequence analysis, molecular modeling, database development etc., and several papers have been published in peer-reviewed international and national journals. Recognizing the progress made by the Centre, DBT upgraded the Centre to a full Centre level in 2002 and several new positions were sanctioned and additional funding was allocated.

The Centre is identified as a Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics Teaching and Research by the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi and awarded a special grant of around 3.79 crores. The Centre is currently offering modular courses in various areas in bioinformatics to various personnel from the Industry and educational institutes under the Centre of Excellence Project. In addition, Centre is taking up research projects under this Grant.

The Centre has so far received grants to the tune of Rs. 4 crores from DBT and 30 lacs from the UGC in addition to Rs.3.79 crores from the DIT.

The University is extending full support for the development of the Centre and I hope that the Centre will achieve newer heights and will soon become a leading centre for Bioinformatics teaching and research in this part of the world.