Biotechnology is defined as the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to produce goods and services. The completion of human genome and Arabidopsis genome projects in the year 2000 were great breakthroughs in the field of biotechnology. In the past twenty years, unprecedented progress in biotechnology has been observed, which has made revolutionary impacts on every aspect of human activity such as agriculture, forestry, horticulture, livestock, health, medicine and environment. In agriculture, it is predicted that the next green revolution or more appropriately “evergreen revolution or more revolution “evergreen revolution” will be due to biotechnological innovations. In livestock, production of new transgenic animals will not only meet the future needs of protein, dairy products etc but these animals could also be used as bioreactor for the production for various pharmaceuticals products. New safe protein drugs, particularly by site-directed mutagenesis, vaccines, diagnostic kits, antibiotics and enzymes can be produced by exploiting the biotechnology in the field of medicine (Medical biotechnology). The genetic based diagnostic assays for some genetic disorders and other diseases have already been developed and their treatment by gene therapy would be possible.

The primary objective of the Institute of Biotechnology is to produce manpower that can contribute to the development of Pakistan particularly in science and technology and its economy in general. Institute of Biotechnology has been established with initial HEC grant of 38 million rupees. It offers M.Sc., M.Phil and PhD programs of study. The Institute houses most modern teaching and research laboratories with the following equipment:
• Thermal Cycler (PCR)
• Gel Documentation System
• Vertical/Horizontal gel electrophoresis system
• Fermenter
• Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
• Bomb Calorimeter
• Freeze Dryer
• Ultra-centrifuge machine
• Incubators, CO2 Incubator
• Bench Top Centrifuges
• UV-Visible Spectrophotometer
• Laminar Flow hood
• Rotary evaporator
• Orbital shaker
• Hybridization oven
• Inverted Microscope
• Ultra low temperature refrigerators (-20 to -80 °C)
• Plant growth room
In addition, a Bioinformatics laboratory has also been established with fifteen P-IV computers. The library of the Institute is equipped with latest and modern books on biotechnology and allied disciplines such as Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Immunology, Agriculture and Microbiology. The institute is also a subscriber of prestigious journals of biotechnology such as Nature Biotechnology Applied Biotechnology & Microbiology and Journal of Biotechnology.