Life on the earth presents immensely diverse metabolic pathways which enable living organism such as xerotolerants, thermophiles and acidophiles to thrive on harsh environment. Existence of life in extreme conditions provides enormous potential to scale up industrial progress. In the previous century, exploitation of this diversity was coined to develop speedy and clean industrial processes. Replacing chemical catalyst by enzymes ensures clean environment for the continuation of life. The biological applications have beneficial effects on our society and altogether changed human life. Advancement in fermentation technology, analytical techniques and genetic engineering have made possible to set large scale industrial units to obtain various biological products ranging from enzymes, surfactants to the production of organic acids. Bioinsectides that promise a safe and clean environment, are rapidly replacing chemical insecticides. Industrial production of insulin, surfactants and cleanser are few highly appreciated practical illustrations of how application of biotechnology in the industry has comforted our lives.

However, there is an urgent need to develop this area to its full potential. By focusing on enzyme technology, different industrial processes can be improved in terms of efficiency, cost and pollution. Production of organic chemicals from waste material can significantly contribute in national progress. Crude oil reserves are suspected to soon deplete hence, renewable energy resources have become focus area of international market. To achieve research goals, a multidisciplinary research group ‘industrial biotechnology’ has been established by integrating areas of biochemistry, molecular genetics, bioinformatics, genomics, cell culture and microbiology. The research group aims to focus the national challenges to enhance the efficiency of existing industrial processes and to discover new industrial based applications of biotechnology. The group is dedicated to contribute its role in the progress of industrial development in the national context.  

Major focus areas of the group include;

Focus Areas

·         Exploration of new resources for biofuels and energy

·         Protein engineering for enzyme catalysis

·         Metabolic engineering and systems biology of industrially important organisms

·         Exploitation of novel microorganism for industrial processes