Main Content

Laboratories



Central Instrumentation Laboratory

The School has established a Central Instrumentation Laboratory to facilitate research as well as routine practical. The laboratory harbors state of the art indigenous and imported analytical instruments like

Sorval C90 Ultracentrifuge: used here for the Isolation of subcellular organelles and macromolecules. Waters Gradient High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC): Used here for analysis of antioxidants and antimicrobial molecules from plant extracts.
Chemito Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS): Used here for estimation of heavy metals from water bodies and industrial effluents.
Chemito Gas Chromatography (GC): Used here for quantification of pesticide residues from fruits, vegetables, grains and processed food products.
Super Hit Rotary Vacuum Digital Bath: Used here for concentrating bio active compounds from various plant extracts. Bio-Rad Microplate reader: Used here for cell proliferation studies and immunological assays like ELISA.
UV Visible Spectrophotometer: Used here for various biochemical assays such as quantification of macromolecules.
Bio-Rad Biologic DuoFlow System: Used here to separate and purify protein and other polymers from complex systems
Promega DNA/RNA/Protein Isolation System: Used for DNA/RNA isolation and protein extraction and purification.
Syngene Gel Documentation Unit: Used for documentation and analysis of protein and nucleic acid gels Therrmocycler: Used for the amplification of gene
Other equipment in the central Instrumentation facility include: Microprocessor based Cold Chamber, Deep Freezer(-60o C, -20o C), Laminar Flow, Ultra filtration unit etc.




Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory

The design and set-up of the plant tissue culture laboratory meets the recommended standards ensuring efficient functioning and experimentations. The laboratory is well-equipped for aseptic culture of plant cells and tissues and that includes autoclaves, biosafety cabinets, refrigerators, rotary shakers, incubators etc. It houses a media preparation and a sterilization room, an inoculation chamber with two laminar airflow cabinets and a huge growth room with controlled light and temperature conditions. The laboratory caters to the requirement of practical sessions and research work on different areas under plant biotechnology including in vitro conservation, in vitro abiotic stress assessment and amelioration, molecular marker based genetic diversity analysis and fidelity testing, Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation, metabolic profiling of tissue culture plants and secondary metabolite production in cell cultures. Several biotechnology research projects have been carried out on Ruta graveolens, Zingiber officinale. Spilanthes acmella, Helicteres isora and Abrus precatorius. Tissue cultures of various plant species viz. Nicotiana tabacum, Barleria prionitis, Costus speciosus, Stevia rebaudiana, Arachis hypogea, Bougainvillea spectabilis and Daucus carota are maintained for practical and research purposes. The laboratory is also utilized for tissue culture demonstrations for external college and school students as an extension activity.




Animal Tissue Culture Laboratory

Animal tissue culture (ATC) lab is a complete setup for routine culture and maintenance of normal and transformed cell lines. The facility conducts studies to assess the cellular toxicity of different compounds and products using assays like MTT, phase contrast microscopy and clonogenic assay. Several self-generated carbon quantum dots, silver nanoparticles and food product based essential oils are tested for their toxicity on normal (non-cancerous) cell lines at different concentration and time points. Conversely, these compounds and products are also investigated for their potential anticancer property using different cancerous cell lines. The lab also has facilities for long term preservation of cell lines and other biological samples in liquid nitrogen (cryopreservation). Zebra fish (Danio rerio), a versatile model organism, is also utilized for assessing cellular toxicity in our laboratory. Routine whole chemical testing involves carrying out fish embryo toxicity test (FET), which is a mandatory component in many food safety guidelines. Using our core competencies in these animal tissue culture models, we have the capabilities to estimate toxicity of any given product with sensitivity and specificity, at differing life stages of developing embryo. We are also in process of establishing new in-vitro model systems to evaluate the toxic nature of natural products that may further serve as the starting point in the development of modern medicines because of their numerous biological and pharmacological activities




Bioinformatics Lab

Bioinformatics Infrastructure was established at School of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics with large collection of software packages like GROMACS, Desmond(Academic version), NAMD, VMD, CHIMERA, PyMOL, MODELLER, Accelrys Discovery studio, AutoDock, SPSS, MATLAB and R to name a few. We provide students with UBUNTU and Windows operating systems for data mining and their analysis. Conversely, ORACLE is being used for Database base development. The computer lab has more than 130 systems capable of handling protein modelling and docking through 8GB RAM desktops. Protein simulations and Metagenomic analysis are carried out using workstations with 16GB RAM with 2TB HDD (4 in number). The computational infrastructure with Internet connectivity is available to the students from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm on all days (except holidays) throughout the week.




Biomedical Engineering Lab

The Biomedical Engineering laboratory includes facilities for biomedical measurements and recording systems, microprocessor and therapeutic equipment. There are also laboratories for electric and electronic circuits, logic circuits, analog integrated circuits, human anatomy studies, biochemistry and computer programming.




Food Science and Technology Laboratories

The School of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics hosts two well equipped laboratories for carrying out academic experiments as well as research work in food processing, food analysis and Unit operations. The experiments based on chemical, physical and biological properties, food preservation, processing and operational techniques can be performed. The labs are equipped with Muffle furnace, tray drier, baking oven, deep freezer, laminar air flow along with the routine instruments like spectrophotometer, colorimeter, micro centrifuge, refractometer, hot air oven, Gerber centrifuge, microwave, pH meter, refrigerator etc. The labs are engaged in various consultancy projects for food industries as well as research on new product development (NPD). The School is looking forward to establishing a well equipped advanced laboratory with facilities like color analyser, viscometer, spray dryer, oil quality monitoring, canning etc. along with the food sensory lab facility.