Introduction

Biology is fast moving from being a descriptive field to an exact science, a transition that will increasingly require input from all branches of Natural Sciences. Department of Biosciences at Jamia Millia Islamia was established in 1985 with an aim to impart teaching with strong component of physical sciences and, research in interdisciplinary areas of Modern Biology. In this pursuit, we also maintain in-house expertise in Pure and interface Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

Our undergraduate teaching programme is radically different from other Indian universities in that it incorporates Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics on equal footing with modern and classical biosciences. Post Graduate teaching programme of MSc-Biosciences captures entire spread of life science. Both programmes strive to build seamless connectivity and synergy between Physical and Biological Sciences. Numerous students of ours have found placement as teachers and researchers in all leading institutes of India and abroad.

In addition to well equipped teaching and research laboratories, the Department maintains Plant tissue culture & Green House facility, Animal, Algal, Fungal and Bacterial cell culture facilities, High Speed Internet, Computational Facility and a Central Instrumentation Facility with trained staff which houses equipments as Ultra-Centrifuge, A range of High Speed Centrifuges, HPLC, Stopped flow apparatus, Spectrophotometers, Spectrofluorometer, Microplate readers, a large range of shakers and sonicators, Water purification systems, Light, Inverted & Fluorescence Microscopes, Gel Documentation systems, PCRs, Ultra Low Temperature Freezers, Organ Bath System. These facilities complement project support mobilized from external funding agencies like UGC, CSIR, DST, DBT, ICMR, MoEF, etc., and underpin research in a range of biological processes from Plant molecular biology, biochemistry and virology through Protein Chemistry, Structural biology, Bioinformatics, Environmental Biology, Cancer and Cardiovascular biology, to Algal, Fungal and Bacterial biochemistry and genetics.

Department of Biosciences is supported by DST-FIST programme as also by UGC-Special Assistance Programme.