MKU-nodal

Nodal Character of SBS

SBS Profile on brief:

The School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, originated in the early 60’s as the postgraduate extension centre of the Zoology department of the Madras University at Madurai. The man in command was Prof. S. Krishnaswamy, popularly known as SK. He was a dreamer and a visionary. At a time, perhaps even now, when the teaching of life sciences was compartmentalized into Botany, Zoology, Microbiology etc., he conceived the idea of teaching Biology as an integrated discipline. For him Botany, Zoology etc., was nothing more than different ways of looking at the same thing, namely, the living state. He felt that the totality of the living state was more important than studying animals or plants in isolation. When the PG extension centre became the Madurai (later Madurai Kamaraj) University in 1966, SK founded the Department of Biological Sciences, the first integrated department in the country. Just a decade later, the Department of Biological Sciences was elevated to a School of Biological Science (SBS) on the recommendation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Expert Committee.

Research in SBS:

Eight Departments of the School of Biological Sciences are involving in research. The UGC had recognized the School of Biological Sciences for continuous support through several levels of assistance such as COSIP, DRS, COSIST, DSA (Phase I, II and III) and Centre of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Functional Genomics and Centre for Excellence in Genomic Sciences (CEGS). Organismal and Functional Genomics is also being supported by the UGC-SAP under its CAS-II program, after the completion of DSA I,II and III of UGC-SAP. School of Biological Sciences got recognized as UGC’s Networking Resource Centre in Biological Sciences (UGC-NRCBS) to promote the research activities in biological Sciences.

Departments:

1) Animal Behaviour & Physiology.
2) Biochemistry.
3) Genetics.
4) Immunology.
5) Microbial Technology.
6) Molecular Biology.
7) Plant Sciences.
8) Plant Morphology & Algology.

Centres:

1) Centre for Advanced studies in Functional Genomics and Organismal Biology.
2) Centre for Excellence in Genomic Sciences.
3) Networking Resource Centre.

Common Equipment Facility & Other Core Facilities in the School:

> SBS has finest instrumental common facilities. Some important equipments which are available in the central facilities are;
Fluorescent Microscope, Microarray Facility, Real Time PCR, Pulse-Field Electrophoresis, TGGE & DGGE, Gene pulser, DNA sequencer, Multina-Bioanalyzer, Multimode plate reader, HPLC, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Nanodrop, Chemi-gel doc system, High-throughput liquid handling system, 2-D Gel electrophoresis & Gel Scanner.