Research - Welcome to Banasthali Vidyapith

Research in the Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology

Background

The PG courses in the department were started in early 1990s with the opening of M.Sc. in Bioscience in 1991 and M.Sc. Biotechnology in 1994. The first Ph.D. student was registered in 1997.

Research Activities

Within a short span, the department has made rapid strides in major thrust areas of research in Bioscience and Biotechnology. Currently, nearly 50 candidates are carrying out research towards their Ph.D. degree. Some of the major areas of research are Plant/Agricultural Biotechnology, Plant Tissue culture, Microbial Biotechnology, Restoration & Physiological Ecology, Immunology, Plant Pathology, Enzymology, Bioinformatics etc. Some of the current research topics are: biochemical basis of plant disease resistance; stress adaptation of plants, reclamation of fluoride-rich soils using plants; tissue culture of arid zone species, role of trophic hormones in reproductive physiology, pesticides biodegradation, biofertilizers, biodegradation of azo dyes etc.

Research Collaboration
National Level

Collaborative research with local/nearby institutions as Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banasthali University, Agriculture Reseacrch Station, Durgapura (Jaipur), Birla Institute of Science & Research and others is being carried out.

International Level

A research collaboration was carried out between the laboratory of Prof. Vinay Sharma in this dept. and Prof. Ulrich Luettge of Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany in the area of Stress Biotechnology. Following exchange visits for research were made:

> From this Department, on invitation of DAAD, Prof. Vinay Sharma visited Germany (May- June, 2000 for 2 months) and then thrice later in 2001, 2002 and 2003 under DST-DAAD project. Dr. Nilima Kumari, Sr. Lecturer visited Germany in 2001, 2002 and 2003 for 3 months each under DST-DAAD project.

> From the German laboratory, Prof. U. Luettge visited this Department in January, 2002, March 2003 and October 2003 for 2 weeks each. Miss Claudia Unfried in January-March, 2002 for 3 months and Dr. Elke Fischer-Schliebs in October, 2002 and March 2004 for 2 weeks. Ms. Melanie Mikosch visited this department in 2003 (October-December) for three weeks.

> Prof. Vinay Sharma has been visiting professor from January to June, 2006 in Prof. Henry Daniell laboratory at Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the University of Central Florida, Orlendo, USA .

Research in the Department of Chemistry

Research Activities:

The Department offers Ph.D. Programme in Chemistry . More than seventy students have been pursuing research work in thrust areas in organic chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, co-ordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, phytochemistry, structure and ligand based drug designing, analytical method development and pharmaceutical formulations.

The Department of Chemistry has the state of art facilities research work. Some major instruments, that it has included FT-IR, HPLC, HPTLC, GC, UV-VIS spectrophotometers; Spectrofluorometer and Gouy's balance, are accessible to research students of chemistry.

Some of the research activities are as follows:

Synthesis, characterization and structural investigation of medicinally potent organic compounds.
Chiral, stereo-selective and enantio-selective synthesis of simple and complex molecules of industrial as well as therapeutically important compounds using green chemistry approach.
Synthesis, characterization and structural investigation of coordination compounds of macrocyclic, schiff bases and related ligands.
Research in the thrust areas of the pharmaceutical chemistry like drug development, synthesis and QSAR studies of drugs.
A collaborative work with CSIR laboratories, national/international pharmaceutical industries and other national/international organizations.

Research in the Department of Pharmacy

Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering