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. |