Bioinformatics & Biotechnology
Vision
Enabling youth to make contributions in the socio-economic progress of the country for the greater good of mankind.
Mission
To prepare future generations with strong foundation of social, ethical, professional standards to compete on social, economic, and technological fronts for a prosperous future.
Introduction
Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology was initially established as a Department of Bioinformatics in 2004-2005 having an undergraduate program in Bioinformatics only, later an MS program in Bioinformatics was also started. In 2010, the Department was renamed as Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology with the initiation of second MS program in Biotechnology, while a PhD program in 2011. Bioinformatics and Biotechnology have become frontline applied science disciplines of the twenty-first century. The ability to decipher the genetic code of living organisms has opened limitless opportunities to improve the quality of human life and has dramatically changed the challenges that the biological and biomedical sciences can address. Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) is among the few institutions in the country to offer degree programs in these emerging fields. Bioinformatics is an amalgamation of Life Sciences, Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Sciences. It is responsible for developing new computer programs (databases and software) for their applications in life sciences. Biotechnology is the technological application of biological systems (living organisms or derivatives thereof) to make or modify products or processes intended for “Human Welfare” or specific use. Over the years, the Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (BNB) has established a competitive research facility to provide interdisciplinary learning and trainings by integrating the computational and biological tools while focusing on industrial enzymes, microbial biotechnology (fungi, bacteria, microalgae, cyanobacteria) for industrial and environmental applications, human genetic disorders, infectious diseases, molecular virology, stem cell and regenerative medicines, stress physiology of plants, molecular plant pathology, integrative OMICs and molecular modeling/simulation, system biology and biomedical data analyses, and much more. The passionate faculty of BNB has established international collaborations with the eminent researchers across the globe including East Asia, Europe, America, and Middle East. The research projects at BNB have been funded by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, International Foundation for Science of Sweden, COMSTECH-TWAS-OIC Italy, National ICT program, and local industry.
Goals / Objectives
- To provide quality education and cutting-edge research environment with impetus to generate professional workforce in society that can demonstrate professional competence, integrity and responsibility in diverse work environments of biological and computational sciences.
To develop and promote new technologies for commercial applications and popularization of biotechnology, molecular biology and bioinformatics.
To foster inter-disciplinary research-based industry-academia linkages to address the local challenges for sustainable socio-economic development and to create career opportunities for fresh graduates.
To train manpower adept at developing innovative computational approaches and commercial bioinformatics tools with biological datasets by integrating machine learning, data mining, and statistical methodologies.
To establish an interactive network of life scientists and bioinformaticians who would be effective contributors towards national and global growth.