We are delighted to announce that our own Prof Prashant Mishra and his team of wonderful PhD students and postdocs have recently been on the news for performing a successful technology transfer in the healthcare domain. They have developed a new DNA aptamer capable of detecting prostate cancer by binding to the specific oncogenes responsible for the diseaase. But they did not stop at that. Prof Prashant and co went on the convert this invention into a healthcare technology, named "DNA Aptamer for Prostate Cancer Detection" which has been recently transferred to Dr. Swapnil Sinha, HUMMSA Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata, India. This technology has an immense potential as theranostics for prostate cancer. Read the entire press release here.

We are elated to announce that our 2023 entry MTech student Tathagat has been selected for the prestigious Reliance Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship for the year 2023-2024. This scholarship is awarded in recognition of academic achievements, demonstration of leadership, and potential for success in future career. Tathagat will receive a scholarship of up to Rs. 6 lakhs (INR Six lakhs) over the duration of the postgraduate degree programme. Way to go Tathagat! We are excited about your achievement which should inspire many of your peers and juniors. We are proud to have you in our department! You can follow this post to learn more about Tathagat's success in his own words.

We are thrilled to announce that Prof. Shilpi Sharma has been selected to participate in Grand Challenges India, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and WomenLift Health's inaugural Women Leadership in STEM (WLS) cohort, a leadership development programme designed to elevate the power and influence of mid-career women in STEM fields in India by equipping them with essential tools, structured mentorship, coaching, peer support, and leadership skills for high impact. Prof Shilpi was selected to be part of a cohort of 20 women scientists in India, who represent a wide range of STEM disciplines and organizations. To learn more about Women Leadership in STEM click here . You can read about the other members of the inaugural WLS cohort here .

We are absolutely overjoyed to announce that our own Prof Preeti Srivastava have been awarded the Tata Innovation Fellowship, 2023-24. This is a Prestigious Fellowship of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India in recognition of outstanding research contributions in translational research by innovative scientific knowledge and platform technologies related to health care, agriculture, environment and other allied areas related to life sciences and Biotechnology. Let's all extend our appreciation for this amazing achivement by Prof Preeti! We are so lucky to have you!

A big welcome to our new faculty member, Jatin Panwar. He has a background in Chemical Engineering and Bioinstrumentation, focussed on developing high-throughput microfluidic platforms for applications like personalised cancer therapy and antibody screening. He holds a PhD from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and has conducted postdoctoral research at European Molecular Biology Lab (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. His research interests are in developing integrated microfluidic systems capable of high-throughout, multi-parametric single cell analysis for personalized cancer therapy, antibody screening, drug discovery, cell-cell interaction studies etc. with a focus on building technologies that are readily translatable to clinical settings. For more information, click here.

Current and incoming students are encouraged to interact with the Prof Jatin for potential projects. He has positions available for Institute Postdocs, PhD and MSR students.

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, announced the "Completion of Sequencing of 10,000 Genomes of Indian Population" on February 27, 2024. The pan-India initiative by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India (https://genomeindia.in), is focused on whole-genome sequencing to identify genetic variations among 10,000 healthy individuals from various ethnic groups, setting the stage for breakthroughs in Precision Healthcare and Personalized Medicine. Prof. D. Sundar (Principal Investigator) and Prof. Ishaan Gupta (Co-Principal Investigator) from IIT Delhi's Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology played a significant role as key data science partners in the 'GenomeIndia' project. PhD student at IIT Delhi, Nirmal Singh Mahar, also contributed significantly to the project. This is a multi-institution consortium project involving 20 institutions across the country, and IIT Delhi is excited to be contributing to the development of algorithms and pipelines for de novo assembly of the mitochondrial genome. The IIT Delhi team aims to generate the Indian mitochondrial genome reference to help in enumerating variation, identifying mitochondrial disorders, and tracing the genetic history of the Indian subcontinent. The announcement event can be watched here.

For more on this follow this link to the Linkedin post.

Prof. D. Sundar of our department has been awarded the prestigious 'Faculty Research Award' for the year 2023 of IIT Delhi. Congratulations to Prof. Sundar. The Prof. P.C.P. Bhatt Faculty Research Award is given for foundational and fundamental research contribution that may be theoretical or experimental, resulting in significant progress in answering (even partially) a long-standing open question or has the potential to work in a research area. This contribution need not have any immediate practical impact -however should have high intellectual appeal to the relevant field. The qualifying work should have been published/performed within the past ten years. This award carries prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs. For Institute announcement, Click here.

We are very excited to announce that our own Prof. Lucinda Elizabeth Doyle was honoured as a #EuropeIndia40 leader by the Europe India Centre for Business and Industry for her work in advancing India-Europe relations. The EuropeIndia40 Leaders list, a benchmark of the emerging under-40 leaders, was revealed during the virtual ceremony on 13th December. From the European Parliament, Mr Morten LØKKEGAARD - Member of European Parliament/ Chairman - Delegation for relations with India - European Parliaments participated in the ceremony. From the UK Parliament, Senior British Member of Parliament Ms Valerie Vaz and from the Indian Parliament, Mr Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayal MP participated in the ceremony. The award certificates are to be given in March 2024 during a ceremony at the European Parliament in Brussels. Initiated by the Europe India Centre for Business and Industry, in its 5th year, the EuropeIndia40 list spotlights young leaders below 40 and their endeavours in bolstering EU-India and UK-India relations annually.

Check out this beautiful flyer of the announcement:

Prof. D. Sundar is among the distinguished scholars elected to the newest class of Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences of India (NASI) in the year 2023. Fellows are elected annually for their contributions to their respective fields and the body of science as a whole.

Prof. Sundar is an Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DBEB) at IIT Delhi. Known for his work in Bioinformatics, Computational Genomics, Genome Engineering and Synthetic Biology, Prof. Sundar is a former Head of our department DBEB and is an Associate Faculty member of the Yardi School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI) and the Coordinator of the High Performance Computing (HPC) facility at IIT Delhi. He is recognized for outstanding contributions to (a) natural product drug discovery, (b) development of genetic analysis tools for genome editing workflows and (c) using AI in drug discovery and biological big data analysis.

We are absolutely overjoyed to announce that our own Prof Shilpi Sharma have been elected the Food Security Winner of the inaugral Tata Transoformation Prize 2023. The Tata Transformation Prize was established in 2022 by Tata Sons and The New York Academy of Sciences to support breakthrough, innovative technologies that address India's most significant challenges. Prof Shilpi is one of the first three winners of the prize from 169 entries by an international jury of renowned experts for their innovations in food security, sustainability, and healthcare. She will receive INR 2 crores (approximately US$240,000) and will be honoured at a ceremony in Mumbai in December 2023. The link to the press release can be found here.

We are proud to announce that DBEB featured successfully and strongly more than ever during the annual IITD Open House on 4th of November, while winning several accolades. Here are some of the highlights:

1. We received a total of 250+ students, teachers and parents from 10+ schools. This represents ~13% of visitors on the day! 2. We gave tour of 2 research labs (Prof. Zia and Prof. Preeti) and 3 common labs (UG, PG, BP). 3. Both of our exhibits at LHC - Autoscope from Prof. Ravi's group and WTL demo from Prof. Zia's group - won prizes. 4. Our department was covered in a newspaper article (see below)!

This was a herculean effort coordinated through a dedicated team of students (UG, PG) and Staff members. A big thanks to Prof Ishaan for putting the events together!

The departmental success of the Open House Day can be summarised by a comment during the departmental overview interaction with a 11th class PCM student from GD Goenka school - "I did not know Biology was so cool".

A big feature on the day was this stunning departmental overview video, check it here.

Congratulations to Dr. Saurabh Samuchiwal, recent PhD from the Centre for Rural Development and Technology, IIT Delhi for getting selected for this year's Prof. T. K. Ghose Memorial Award. The Award aims to recognize a student of IIT Delhi whose PhD thesis in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology has been adjudged to be the best in that particular year. We had the award ceremony on 6th September, 2023 at the Lecture Hall Complex auditorium. Dr. Saurabh gave a short presentation on his PhD thesis work. Prof. Subhash Chand (PhD, IIT Delhi, 1978) shared some fond memories about Prof. Ghose. This was followed by the Prof. TK Ghose Memorial Lecture delivered by Prof. Banwari Lal, Senior Director, EIBD, The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), and Managing Director, ONGC TERI Biotech Limited, (OBTL). He spoke about his seminal work on applications of biotechnology solution in oil industry.

It brings us immense pleasure to inform you that doctoral student Rashi Tyagi, supervised by Prof. Shilpi Sharma, has bagged the prestigious Jeff Schell Fellowships for Agricultural Sciences, by Bayer. She is one of the 9 recipients selected worldwide, the only one from India. The leaflet can be accessed here..

Congratulations to Dr. Srishti Srivastava on their selection for the best PhD thesis award in 2022. The awards were given away in the award ceremony scheduled on Nov 14, 2022. Prof. Sudhanshu Vrati, Executive Director, Regional Center for Biotechnology (RCB) delivered the Memorial Award Lecture on Rotavirus Vaccine Development. For more information, click here..

A big welcome to our new faculty members Amit Das, Anjan Roy, and Priti Sinha. They come with a vast trove of experience in their respective fields enriching the department in 3 exciting areas of Biotechnology- Biophysics, Theoretical Biology and Bio-microfluidics.

Prof. Amit has a background in Biophysics and Computational modelling specifically working on cell and tissue mechanics. He did his PhD from S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata which he followed with two postdocs from NCBS Bangalore and Northeastern University Boston.
Prof. Anjan has a background in Theoretical Biology and Statistical Mechanics working on a plethora of problems with practical applications such as modeling Bacterial Physiology and growth. He did his PhD from Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. He followed these with three postdocs from Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Germany; International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Prof. Priti has a background in Biochemical engineering specializing in Bio-microfluidics and Electrohydrodynamics applied to biological problems. She did her Ph.D.from IIT Bombay followed by two postdocs at University of Grenoble (France) and University of Milan (Italy).

Current and incoming students are encouraged to interact with the young faculty for potential projects. All three have positions available for Institute Postdocs, PhD and MSR students. Do interact and apply whenever the advertisement is out.

Please visit their respective webpages to know more click here.

Starting the ensuing academic session 2022-2023, our department will offer a unique MTech program, one of its kind, in Biomolecular and Bioprocess Engineering. Biomolecular Engineering would include engineering of biomolecules, namely nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Bioprocess Engineering would include quantitative descriptions of the (a) Interactions between the molecules that govern cellular behaviour, which are typically captured by appealing to the principles of Chemical Reaction Engineering. (b) Mass, momentum, and energy transfer phenomena that govern purification and scale-up of bench-scale processes. Thus, the programme will offer a unique amalgamation of Biomolecular and Bioprocess Engineering. There is a need for such a post-graduate program to enable leading-edge skill development in the country. The M. Tech program would provide: a) Knowledge and understanding of biomolecules b) Engineering of biomolecules nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids c) Exposure to quantitative aspects of biological processes d) Engineering solutions for downstream processing and scale-up e) Bioinformatics for addressing key problems The programme aims to equip students with theoretical knowledge and experimental skills necessary to make them independent researchers equipped to handle modern biotechnology. The submission of online applications commences on April 18, 2022 and the last date for submission of online applications is May 02, 2022. For PG admission website, click here. For Application portal, click here.

The iGEM team from IIT Delhi led by students from the DBEB department has won the Gold medal at the Grand Jamboree held in Paris between October 26-28. They took on the challenge to tackle the problem of lead contamination in ground and waste water by applying Biotechnology principles learnt at IIT to engineer bacteria to bind lead. The team of 18 undergads was led by Dhwani Teckchandani and Apar Ahuja under the supervision of Prof Preeti and Prof. Sundar with PhD Student Nidhi Patil as the Instructor.
Proud moment for us all. More details to follow. Please follow the link to their project LEADer: Bacterial Biosorbant for Lead Recovery and Whole-Cell Oscillatory Biosensor " click here for iGEM wiki.

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Ravikrishnan Elangovan was featured in The Tribune spotlight on May 24, 2022. Prof. Elangovan's group in collaboration with Dr. Naresh Kumar of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) have developed a new innovative technology for rapid detection of clinical and sub-clinical mastitis in dairy animals. For more information, click here New clip, Article.

Prof. Shilpi Sharma of our Department has been recognised by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India and the British High Commission, New Delhi, in the list of top 75 Indian Women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Applied Arts and Mathematics). She will be featured in 'She Is - 75 Women in STEAM', the second edition of the book series 'She Is' (Mar 03, 2022). The aim of the 'She Is' book series is to showcase more women role models for youth, make visible the leadership of women and generate interest in the STEAM and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Congratulations to Prof. Shilpi.

For more information, Click here.

As part of IIT Delhi's 64th Foundation Day celebrations, Prof. Ritu Kulshreshtha of our department has been awarded the prestigious 'Faculty Research Award' for the year 2021, instituted by our alumni. Congratulations to Prof. Ritu. For Institute announcement, Click here.

Welcome by the Head of the Department, click here. For Orientation schedule, click here.

For full size image, click here click here.

Congratulations to Dr. Jananee Jaishankar and Dr. Viswanath Hebbi on their selection for the best PhD thesis award in 2021. The awards will be given away in the award ceremony scheduled on Nov 22, 2021. Dr. Amulya K. Panda, former Director of DBT-National Institute of Immunology (NII) will deliver the Memorial Award Lecture on Renaissance in Biological Manufacturing through Fermentation. For more information, click here..

Two PhD projects are available under the Joint PhD program of IIT Delhi with University of Queensland. The advisors are (1) Prof. Shilpi Sharma from our Department and Prof. Dr Cristina Martinez from Queensland and (2) Prof. T.R. Sreekrishnan from our Department and Prof. Bronwyn Laycock from Queensland. For Project 1, Click here, For Project 2, Click here.

Starting this year, the 'Prof. T.K. Ghose Memorial Award for Best PhD Thesis in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology' will be given annually. The award is given in honour of late Prof. T.K. Ghose, a distinguished Biochemical Engineer of the country, to perpetuate his memory. He was the driving force to initiate and nurture the discipline of Biochemical Engineering in India. For details, click here.

Our faculty member Prof. Madhuresh Sumit has been awarded the 2021 Martin Sinacore Outstanding Young Investigator Award. This award recognizes young scientists (0-5 years post-PhD) for their contribution to the field of upstream bioprocessing. It is highly competitive in the field, and is awarded during the Cell Culture Engineering (CCE) conference that occurs biannually. The award is in recognition of Prof. Sumit's work in precision control of N-glycosylation in monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic proteins, as well as contribution to the in silico modeling and big data analytics in upstream bioprocessing in various industry consortia.

Congratulations to Padma Shri Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, Honorary Professor in the Department, on being awarded the National Science Chair (NSC) (Mode-1) by SERB, DST, Govt. of India. These Chairs are to serve as a benchmark for stature, value and eminence in research in Science and Technology. For more information, click here click here.

Congratulations to our 2019-entry PhD students Ms. Aastha Singh and Ms. Rewati Dixit on their selection to PMRF in the Dec 2020 cycle! For more information, click here click here.

A big welcome to our new faculty member, Madhuresh Sumit. He completed his BS-MS dual degree in Chemical and Biphysical Sciences from IISER Pune, completed his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering as well as obtained his PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship from MIT (USA) and was a Senior Scientist in the Biotherapeutics and Pharmaceutical Sciences Division at Pfizer Inc., Andover, MA, USA. His research interests are in integrating computational and experimental systems biology to understand and manipulate cell responses; Multi-scale modeling of non-linear physiological systems and bio-processing units; Application of integrated systems approach towards process optimization; Miniaturization of bioprocessing for personalized medicines. For more information, click here click here.

A research paper from the laboratory of Prof. D. Sundar and Prof. Seyed Hasnain has reported the structure-function analysis of new SARS-CoV2 variants and shown how it can be useful in predicting transmission and immune evasive capabilities of new strains. For news coverage, click here.

The research carried out by Professor T.R. Sreekrishnan along with researchers from TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and NEERI (the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute), in collaboration with Dutch institutional partners on recovering usable water from the Barapullah drain was featured in India Today. For news coverage, click here.

During the calendar year 2020, various initiatives and measures were undertaken for conducting research and teaching in the department. For the major highlights of the achievements of the department in research and innovation, education and publications, kindly click here Report.

The online registration (uploading of documents and forms) for students admitted in Semester 1, 2020-2021 is open from August 18, 2020 to September 17, 2020. For the semester schedule, click here, For the details of online registtration, click here, For Online Orientation-related instructions (Sep 22-24, 2020), click here, For Departmental Orientation session on Sep 23, 2020, click here.

A research paper from the laboratory of Prof. Ziauddin Shaikh Ahammad has reported that the river Yamuna harboured some of the critical group, multidrug-resistant. For news coverage, click here.

Prof. Ravikrishnan Elangovan and his research group has been granted a US Patent on systems and methods for magnetic capturing of rare cells from a liquid sample. For more information, click here click here.

Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020 (DDH2020), a joint initiative of AICTE, CSIR and supported by Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt. of India, NIC and MyGov. DDH2020 vision and mission is to establish "Open innovation Model" for in silico drug discovery against Covid-19 virus and will cover the various processes in drug discovery, including but not limited to, in silico screening of molecules, lead optimization and identification of drug-able non-toxic targets. The targets/tools/lead molecules identified through the process of DDH2020 will be further taken forward for synthesis followed by subsequent steps in routine drug discovery program. Prof. D. Sundar of the Department delivered a talk at DDH2020 on 'CRISPR/Cas9 in drug discovery'. For details on DDH2020 click here, for Flyer Click here. for YouTube video that was livestreamed Click here.

For more information, click here click here.

A collaborative research study by Prof. Sundar's lab and AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Japan has recently discovered that Ashwagandha may hold an efficient anti-COVID-19 drug. For more information, click here IITD News , Vigyan Prasar COVID Newsletter, Vigyan Prasar COVID News Bulletin (English, 20200523), Vigyan Prasar COVID News Bulletin (Hindi, 20200523).

For more information, Click here.

Profs. Shilpi Sharma and Preeti Srivastava will be coordinating a Short Term Course on 'Environmental sustainability through microorganims' under the aegis of 'Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP-III)' during July 13-17, 2020 in the Department. For Flyer, Click here.

The department hosted the 2nd Indian Alumni Meeting of invitees under the Sakura Science Plan on February 15, 2020 at IIT Delhi. The event was sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology (JST) Agency. For more information on Sakura Science Exchange Porgram under the Sakura Science Plan, click here click here.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India launches the GenomeIndia initiative for cataloguing the genetic variations in Indians. It is Pan India initiative focussed on whole genome sequencing of representative populations across India. The project aims to catalogue genetic variations in 10,000 healthy individuals covering the major ethnic groups spread across the country to provide a boost to Precision Healthcare. This is a multi-institution consortium project involving 20 institutions across country - CBR-IISc, AIIMS Jodhpur, CCMB, CDFD, IGIB, GBRC, IIIT- ALD, IISER Pune, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Jodhpur, IBSD, ILS, Mizoram University, NCBS, NIBMG, NIMHANS, RGCB and SKIMS. The laboratory of Prof. D. Sundar, representing the Department and IIT Delhi, is excited to be a part of this project. For twitter feed click here, for Flyer Click here.

During the calendar year 2019, various initiatives and measures were undertaken for conducting research and teaching in the department. For the major highlights of the achievements of the department in research and innovation, education and publications, kindly click here Report.

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Shaikh Z Ahammad was featured in The New York Times spotlight on December 23, 2019. The laboratory of Prof. Ziauddin Shaikh Ahammad is involved in developing metagenomic assisted surveillance tools for tracking antibiotic resistance in river bodies. For more information, click here click here

Our new faculty in the department was featured in IITD website. For more information, click here click here.

A big welcome to our new faculty member, Ishaan Gupta. He completed his BE Computer Science & MSc Biological Sciences degree from BITS, Pilani and obtained his PhD from University of Heidelberg and EMBL Heidelberg (Germany). He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (USA) and Weill Cornell Medicine (USA). He specializes in the end-to-end development of novel transcriptomic assays to measure biological phenomena with high precision and accuracy. For more information, click here click here.

The department mourns the demise of Prof. Tarun Kumar Ghose who breathed his last on September 25, 2019. Prof. T.K. Ghose founded the Department in IIT Delhi. The Biological Engineering Society of India (BESI) paid rich tribues to Prof. Ghose during its annual conference BESCON2019 held in IIT Madras during October 18-19, 2019. For Tribute, Click here.

Prof. Shilpi Sharma will be hosting an Indo-Australian (IITD-UQ) joint workshop on Soil Management for sustainable agriculture on September 20, 2019 in the Department. For Program, Click here.

Two PhD projects are available under the Joint PhD program of IIT Delhi with University of Queensland. The advisors are Prof. Lucinda Elizabeth Doyle from our Department and Prof. Gordon Southam from Queensland. For Flyer, Click here, For Poster, Click here, For Project 1, Click here, For Project 2, Click here.

Profs. Shilpi Sharma and Preeti Srivastava will be coordinating a Short Term Course on 'Environmental sustainability through microorganims' under the aegis of 'Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP-III)' during Nov 18-22, 2019 in the Department. For Flyer, Click here.

A big welcome to our new faculty member, Lucinda Elizabeth Doyle. She has just joined our department after receiving her PhD from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and after a postdoctoral at Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering. She will start her research in microbial electrochemistry once she gets settled.. For more information, click here click here.

To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India and our Institute have come together to bring the best of science and technology to implement waste management in India. Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt of India, Prof K. Vijay Raghavan and Director, IIT Delhi, Prof V. Ramgopal Rao signed a Memorandum of Understanding recently for setting up a Centre of Excellence for Waste to Wealth Technologies for implementation of sustainable, scientific and technological solutions for waste management, through validation and deployment of available technologies for transformation of waste to wealth. Our departmental faculty Prof. T.R. Sreekrishnan is also involved in this initiative. For more information, click here IITD News .

Latest research conducted by Prof. D. Sundar in collaboration with researchers from AIST, Japan, provide the first line of evidence that Withaferin-A and Withanone from Ashwagandha may be particularly effective for treatment of cancers with p53Y220C mutation. p53Y220C mutation has been categorized as the 9th most frequent p53 missense mutation found in cancer with ~100,000 new cancer cases per year worldwide and is one of the major mutations in Aflatoxin B1-related hepatocellular carcinoma and head & neck squamous cell carcinoma. For more information, click here News 1, News 2, IITD News .

A big welcome to our new faculty member, Rohan Jain. He has just joined our department after receiving his PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallee, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, IHE Delft and after a postdoctoral at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. He will start his research into Critical metal recovery and bio-ligands once he gets settled.. For more information, click here click here.

DAILAB at IIT Delhi in association with DAILAB at AIST, Japan and Schrodinger Inc will be conducting a workshop on Drug Discovery Technology during February 19-20, 2019 in the Department. For more information, Click here.

The 1990-batch of our alumni UG/PG students visited the Department on December 21, 2018 as part of their 25 Year Silver Jubilee Reunion held at IIT Delhi. The department was immensely happy to welcome back its proud alumni. It was wonderful to have them in the Department and reminisce about their years in the Department and in IIT Delhi. For picture book, Click here.

Prof. D. Sundar of the Department has been elected as a Fellow of the Biotech Research Society, India (BRSI) in recognition of his outstanding research contributions in the area of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The Fellow Induction Ceremony 2018 was held during the Annual Convention of the Society at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad on November 22, 2018. Dr. Shekhar Mande, Director General CSIR and Secretary, DSIR, Govt. of India presented the scrolls to the newly elected Fellows.

Our departmental faculty Profs. Sreekrishnan and Ziauddin S. Ahammad are involved in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, wastewater from drains will be used to produce biofuel. Science and technology minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched this project on September 18, 2018, wherein a plant with a capacity of 10 lakh litres per day will be set up to produce biofuel by treating sewer water from the Barapullah drain. For more information, click here click here.

Our departmental B.Tech student Mr. Jaen Hyun Kim (2017BB10011), originally from Seoul, South Korea, was featured in a newspaper article on Sep 11, 2018. In the article, Jae Hyun Kim shares his experience of schooling in India post class VI and how he prepared for the JEE (Advanced) to join in IIT Delhi. For more information, click here click here.

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. D. Sundar was featured in THE WEEK mgazine on July 29, 2018. The article was titled 'Cancer warriors' and featured the work on natural products as sources of new drugs being explored by the group. For more information, click here click here

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Shaikh Z Ahammad was featured in the Indian Express spotlight on July 24, 2018. The departmental faculty Profs. T.R. Sreekrishnan and Shaikh Z. Ahammad are leading this indo-Dutch project called LOTUS HR (Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse) to test technologies that target, apart from conventional contaminant parameters like biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), pH value, etc., "contaminants of emerging concern" such as pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), the effects of which were until recently only poorly understood.. For more information, click here click here

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Ravikrishnan Elangovan was featured in the Economic Times spotlight on July 22, 2018. The group has developed two low-cost, low-maintenance diagnostic tech tools that could potentially help diagnose tuberculosis cheaper, faster and better even in remote locations. For more information, click here click here

A retreat to discuss Bioinformatics learning, education and training was organized by the Department on April 28, 2018. For Program, Click here.

Profs. Shilpi Sharma and Preeti Srivastava coordiated a Short Term Course on 'Microbial Diversity for Human Welfare' under the aegis of 'Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP-III)' during April 9-11, 2018 in the Department. For Flyer, Click here.

Our B.Tech student Mr. Vinay Kamju (2014BB10042) has secured All India Rank # 7 in Graduate Aptitute Test in Engineering (GATE-2018) in Biotechnology paper. He joins a group of other students from IIT Delhi who have topped in GATE-2018. For more information, click here Toppers.

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Ravikrishnan Elangovan in collaboration with Jamia Hamdard University and ICMR was featured in the Times of India spotlight on March 04, 2018. TThe group has developed 'iMC2 TB Test', which may soon be a cost-effective, time-saving gadget to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis and promises to bring down the detection time from four days to an hour. For more information, click here link 1, link 2

Ms. Jaspreet Kaur Dhanjal (2013BEZ8509), PhD student of the department won the second best oral presentation prize in the Research Scholars Symposium held as part of the National Science Day 2018 on February 28, 2018. She was one of the six students who was shortlisted for the final oral presentation from among the different research scholars nominated by different academic units of IIT Delhi. For symposium flyer, Click here.

Prof. David Graham of the School of Engineering of Newcastle University, UK is offering a course under the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) on Water Quality and Aquatic Toxicology during February 5-17, 2018 in the Department. For more information on the speaker, Click here.

Valetude Primus Healthcare (VPH), a technology spinoff from the department, was founded in 2015 to address the healthcare challenges prevalent in developing nations using innovative technologies made in India. VPH was founded by Saurabh Singh, Vikas Pandey and Ravikrishnan Elangovan, a faculty in the Department. Edited excerpts from an interview: click here News.

Mr. Rajeev Dahiya, Jr. Technical Superintendent in the department was bestowed with the Outstanding Sportsperson of the year 2017 award by the Institute for his commendable achievements in the 24th Inter IIT Staff Sports Meet. Photo

Lt. Governor Sh. Anil Baijal inspected the LOTUS project at Barapullah Drain, Sun Dial Park, Sarai Kale Khan - an India Netherlands collaborative project on November 11, 2017. This project is led by our departmental faculty Prof. T.R. Sreekrishnan. For more information, click here News.

Our dual degree student Ms. Yoshita Agrawal (2012BB50050) was awarded the Director's Gold Medal for all-round performance amongst the graduating undergraduate class of 2017 in the annual convocation held on November 04, 2017. For more information, click here News.

Prof. John Villadsen of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering of Technical University of Denmark is offering a course under the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) on Bioreaction Engineering during October 9-17, 2017 in the Department. For more information on the speaker, Click here.

Our dual degree student Mr. Dhritiraj Das (2013BB50011) has won 3 individual gold medals (100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly) in the 33rd Inter IIT Aquatics Meet held during Oct 1-4, 2017 in IIT Madras. He becomes the fastest swimmer among all IITs in 2017. His dedication and hardwork is unparalleled and ever-inspiring. Not only has he achieved this brilliant feat for himself, he has trained the team from scratch too, both in swimming and Water Polo. For more information, click here BSA, IITD.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, announced the expansion of its first joint International laboratory with National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST) Japan named as DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine (DAILAB) to DAICENTER by signing a contract on September 13, 2017 in line with the Indo-Japan Annual Summit held during September 13-14, 2017. DAILAB established in AIST and IIT Delhi has become a role model of India-Japan S&T co-operation and has helped many students in several ways. DAICENTER involves (i) new research projects on Translational and Environmental Research including Big Data in Biomedicine, (ii) new programs for educating and inspiring youth for science careers and (iii) new connectivity/bridge between universities-research institutes-industries at both ends to inspire innovation, application and industrialization of research for the benefit of society. For more information, click here News 1, News 2, Photo

Prof. Sunil Nath of the Department has been elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (effective Nov 1, 2017) for his contributions to Engineering. Our hearty congratulations to Prof Sunil Nath for this well deserved recognition and best wishes for more distinctions. For more information, click here Announcement

Research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. D. Sundar was featured in the Economic Times spotlight on May 14, 2017. The article was titled 'How a clutch of scientists at different labs in the country are researching in different areas of cancer, from detection to methods of invasion of the deadly cells'. For more information, click here Article.

Profs. T.R. Sreekrishnan and Zia Shaikh from the Department are leading the project on "Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse" (LOTUSHR) for cleaning the Barapullah drain at Sarai Kale Khan, New Delhi. The Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan laid the foundation stone to mark the beginning of the project on May 09, 2017. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, Mr. Bert Koenders, the Lt. Governor of Delhi, Shri Anil Baijal, the Secretary, Department of Biotechnology Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan and other dignitaries also participated in the function. For more information, click here PIB news, DBT news, News 1, News 2.

Latest research conducted by Prof. D. Sundar in collaboration with researchers from AIST, Japan, indicates that Ashwagandha (or Withania somnifera - an Ayurvedic herb) can be a potential drug candidate for treating an aggressive form of cancer. For more information, click here News 1, News 2, IITD News .

Dr. Sakshi Tewari, DST Young Scientist, working under the mentorship of Dr Shilpi Sharma, was chosen for the First Prize under PG category for her project entitled 'Enhancing nodulation and growth attributes of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) utilizing beneficial rhizobacteria, during the Open House celebrated by IIT Delhi on April 22, 2017. For more information, click here Award List, Webpage

The departmental faculty Dr. D. Sundar delivered a talk on "Rewriting the Blueprint of Life by Genome Engineering' as part of the 'IIT Delhi Research Cafe' Seminar series on April 11, 2017. The speakers for the Seminar Series are chosen from within IIT Delhi, who have an interesting scientific journey to share with the Institute community. The general emphasis of the talk is on sharing the story starting from inspiration for the research, challenges, overiew of the solutions attempted, success and failures. For more information, click here Flyer, Interview

The departmental faculty Dr. Zia Shaikh and Dr. D. Sundar are invited speakers at the synthetic biology conference at JNU called 'International Biological Engineering Meeting (iBEM 1.0)' from March 26-28, 2017. The conference has talks on genome editing, cell factory, genome construction, synthetic life, enabling technologies, iGEM and so on. A new initiative called iBEC (Indian Biological Engineering Competition) for Indian students will be launched in this conference. For more information, click here link 1, link 2

Genome Editing by CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the process of making DNA-level changes and the implications of this reach far beyond standard molecular biology applications. The CRISPR-Cas9 system can be used as a tool-box for editing, modifying, visualizing and interrogating genomes and can be adapted for numerous other applications depending upon the need of the researcher. At the workshop on CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing, participants are provided with a hands-on training on how to use this technology for precisely manipulating their own targets starting from design to experimentation and subsequent analysis. The departmental faculty Dr. D. Sundar served as a Speaker/Instructor in this workshop held at IGIB during March 22-25, 2017. For more information, click here

Saurabh Singh and Vikas Pandey, two former students of the Department, mentored by Dr. Ravi Elangovan and Vivek Perumal, have developed a rapid diagnostic method for typhoid with a turnaround diagnosis time of seven hours. Tests available currently take over two days to arrive at a diagnosis. The newest diagnostic tool is simple to manage, portable and most importantly 'cost effective', making it a more viable option for the rural masses. The Pfizer-IIT Delhi Innovation and IP Program (PIDIIP) aligned with the the "Start-up India, Stand up India' national campaign helped the duo develop this test. . For more information, click here link 1, link 2

The Indo-Japan joint laboratory DAILAB (DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine) participated in the deliberations of the STS forum 2nd Indo-Japan Workhop held on Feb 28, 2017 in New Delhi. A special session on cooperation in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology between India and Japan was organized as part of the workshop. Partners of DAILAB from IIT Delhi and AIST Tsukuba participatedi in the meeting. For more information, click here link 1, link 2

Dr. Ravikrishnan Elangovan and his team Valetude Primus have won this prestigious international award for developing 'SiMED' - a novel portable device for early-stage detection and categorisation of blood bacterial infection. At an award ceremony held in London at the Royal Society on November 21, 2016, members of the team were presented with the Longitude Prize Discovery Award. The Longitude Prize is a global science competition that will award 8 million GBP to a diagnostic test that helps solve the problem of global antibiotic resistance. It is being run by Nesta and supported by Innovate UK as funding partner. For more information, click here link 1, link 2

Prof. T.R. Sreekrishnan and Dr. Shaikh Z. Ahammad of the Department are heading the consortium of scientists from India along with scientists from The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) who have teamed up with Scientists from the Delft University of Technology, Wageningten University and the Vrije Unversiteit in the Netherlands to set up a network of sewage treatment plants that will clean wastewater in Delhi's Barapullah drain, which is reportedly responsible for 30 per cent of the pollution of the Yamuna. The 'Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse' (LOTUS) project was inaugurated at Barapulla Sundial on September 08, 2016. For more information, click here link 1, link 2

A DBT Unit of Excellence (UoE) for cancer research has been established in the Department in the year 2016. For more information, click here

A startup by PhD students "Valetude Primus Healthcare Pvt Ltd" mentored by our faculty Dr. Ravikrishnan Elangovan has been awarded the inaugural Pfizer-IIT Delhi Innovation Resident Incubation (Idea to IP) Award. This program aims to support healthcare-based individual innovators/start-ups from idea to IP stage; with well defined technology objectives, roadmaps and significant commercial potential. The award was presented at a ceremony held on July 27, 2016 at IIT Delhi. This team has been recognized for developing a rapid diagnostics method for typhoid infection with a turnaround time of 5-7 hours. For more information, click here

In order to promote close and effective collaboration between India and Japan, the Department of Biotechnology of India (DBT), Govt. of India and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan) had established a joint international research laboratory, named DAILAB (DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine) in the Department on November 04, 2015. DAILAB is the first joint international laboratory of DBT and AIST in the field of Biomedicine. For more information, click here

Our undergraduate student team won bronze medal in the annual international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition helad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA during September 24-28, 2015. The team worked on developing a genetically engineered bacteria that may be the future solution for air pollution. For more information, click here link 1, link 2, link 3

The B.Tech/M.Tech dual degree program offered by the department received the highest A+ ranking from the DBT Task Force on Human Resources Development in February 2015. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India is partially supporting this teaching program.

The department has received major funding from the DST under the 'Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) program again in 2015. The earlier FIST grant was awarded to the department in the year 2005.

The Departmental faculty and researchers from Newcastle University, UK are studying how large gatherings of people in Rishikesh and Haridwar could become hotspots for the spread of the genes that cause antibiotic resistance. The river samples that Dr. Zia Shaikh analysed, showed that, when the amount human waste entering the river rises during May and June, levels of antibiotic resistance genes are up to 60 times higher. For more information, click here link 1, link 2, YouTube

A process technology for mass multiplication of PGPR strains developed under Biofertilizer network project sponsored by Indo-Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology (ISCB) has been transferred to M/s. Nagarjuna Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (NFCL), Hyderabad by Technology Advancement Unit (TAU) of DBT (on behalf of the investigators) in Nov. 2012. For more information, click here

A DBT Centre of Excellence (CoE) for microbial production of designer polymers from renewable resources has been established in the Department in the year 2012. For more information, click here