The Department of Agricultural Biotechnology was established in 1989 at Assam Agricultural University, the oldest Agricultural University in the North East of India. This Department, supported by the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Govt of India, has been conferring M.Sc degree in Biotechnology ever since its inception and from 2010-11 offers a PhD degree programme for students with both Agricultural and non-Agricultural sciences backgrounds. The Department has a strength of 15 major faculty members majority of whom have been well trained abroad in different areas of Biotechnology. It also has well-equipped laboratory facilities for Gene Technology, Molecular Markers, RNAi, Microbial Biotechnology etc with state of the art equipment like the ABI capillary-sequencer HPLC, Confocal Microscope etc. Based on the infrastructure, human resources, and publications, the Department has been offered an MSc Agricultural Biotechnology teaching programme by the DBT Govt of India.
Several competitive research grants from national agencies like DBT, ICAR, DST, UGC, etc. and international agencies such as Kirkhouse Trust, UK have been awarded to the Department. In addition, several international collaborative research projects under Indo-Swiss, Indo-Australia, Indo-USA have been completed and are presently running in the Department. A major research achievement of the department has been the generation of insect-resistant transgenic chickpea lines which have been transferred to the public (IIPR, Kanpur, ICRISAT, Patancheru, UAS, Dharwad, PAU, Ludhiana) and private (Sungro Seeds) organizations for varietal development. As a recognition of the Department's achievement in teaching and research, in 2011 it was awarded a Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Biotechnology.
| UG Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | ABT-223 * | Principles of Plant Biotechnology | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 2 | SCI(ABT)323 * | Seri-Biotechnology | 3(2 + 1) | * courses are compulsory |
| Masters Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | ABT 504 * | PLANT TISSUE CULTURE AND GENETIC TRANSFORMATION | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 2 | ABT 506 | MICROBIAL/ INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 3 | ABT 507 | MOLECULAR BREEDING | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 4 | ABT 508 * | GENOMICS AND PROTEOMICS | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 5 | ABT 509 | TECHNIQUES IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-II | 3(0 + 3) | |
| 6 | ABT 510 | BIOSAFETY, IPR AND BIOETHICS | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 7 | ABT 512 * | IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 8 | ABT 555 * | INTRODUCTION TO BIOINFORMATICS | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 9 | ABT 556 | ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 10 | ABT-560 | CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURE | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 11 | MBB 501 * | PRINCIPLES OF BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 12 | MBB 502 * | FUNDAMENTALS OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 13 | MBB 503 * | MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 14 | MBB 504 * | TECHNIQUES IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-I | 3(0 + 3) | |
| 15 | MBB 514 | NANO-BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | |
| 16 | MBB 521 * | PRINCIPLES OF MICROBIOLOGY | 3(2 + 1) | * courses are compulsory |
| PhD Courses | ||||
| # | Course No. | Course Title | Course Credit | Syllabus |
| 1 | ABT 604 * | ADVANCES IN CROP BIOTECHNOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 2 | ABT 605 * | ADVANCES IN FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS AND PROTEOMICS | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 3 | ABT 606 * | COMMERCIAL PLANT TISSUE CULTURE | 2(2 + 0) | |
| 4 | MBB 601 * | PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 5 | MBB 602 * | PLANT GENOME ENGINEERING | 3(3 + 0) | |
| 6 | MBB 603 * | Plant Omics and Molecular Breeding | 3(3 + 0) | * courses are compulsory |
1.
Dr. Madhumita Barooah, Professor, Department of Agricultiral Biotechnology,
AAU, Jorhat was awarded Rajendra Prasad Excellence Award-2020-Society of
tropical Agriculture
2.
Ruby Gupta- awarded ABSTC Student Scholarship, to attend the 15th ISBR
Symposium that will take place in Tarragona, Spain from 1-4 April 2019. This
scholarship recognizes her role as an emerging scientist in biotechnology, as
evidenced by the abstract submitted by her and its selection by the Scholarship
Committee for this prestigious award.
3.
Ms. Suprava Priyadarshini Nayak, MSc student has been selected for the
Khorana Fellowship 2019 to visit USA for a period of 4 months
4. Dr
Indrani Kakati-Got selected for postdoctoral appointment to the Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) Research Participation Program. Dr. Bryan Bailey will
serve as her mentor at the Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory (SPCL)
located at Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
5. Mr.
Alokesh Ghosh-Begged the best poster (1st position) award in the
technical session 3 at the international conference ICCBSA- 2018.
6.
Dr. Sushil Kumar Singh- Awarded First poster prize in
International conference on CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE (ICCBS-2018) held on December 13th to 16th,
2018 at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat -785013.
7.
Ms Sanjukta Singha- Got 2nd Best Oral
Presentation for her work -Cloning and characterization of gene encoding
eIF4E from Bhut jolokia (Capsicum chinense Jaqc.),
at International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable
Agriculture (ICCCBSA) 13th Dec to 16th Dec, 2018.
8.
Four students from department of Agricultural Biotechnology have bagged the
prestigious BRAVE fellowship under the Erasmus Mundus programme 2016-17.
Sl. No | Name of Student | University |
1 | Geetimollika Hazarika | Agricultural University of |
2 | Ananya Baruah | Agricultural University |
3 | Ricky Raj Paswan | UPM: Universidad |
4 | Mausumi Hazarika | UNIMI: University of |
9. Ms Sushmita Rajkhowa, M.Sc.
student has been selected for a 2 and half month training at Washington
State University, Pullman under the Khurana Programme-2016.
10. Ms
Trisnamoni Gautom, JRF, department of Agricultural Biotechnology got selected
for Newton-Bhabha PhD placements programme 2016-17, funded by Department of
Biotechnology (DBT) and British Council, and will do part of her PhD research
work at The University of Manchester, Manchester.
11.
Ms. Ranju Chutia (2014) begged BRAVE fellowship under the
Erasmus Mundus programme to pursue
PhD at Martin-Luther-University, Germany
12.
Ms. Manaswita Baruah (2014) begged BRAVE fellowship under the
Erasmus Mundus programme to pursue
PhD at Martin-Luther-University, Germany
13.
Ms. Assma Parveen (2013) INSPIRE Fellow, PhD Scholar, AAU, Jorhat.
14. Dr. M K
Modi, Prof & Head, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat-
selected for DBT Overseas Fellowship for NE-2012.
15. B K Sarmah,
Prof, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- Top reviewer of
Plant Science, 2012.
16. B K Sarmah,
Prof, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat- Editorial Board
member selected for “Indian Journal of Genetic and Plant Breeding.2012
17. Dr. Akhil
Ranjan Baruah, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology,
AAU, Jorhat- selected for DBT Overseas Fellowship for NE-2012
18. Dr. Robin C
Boro, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU,
Jorhat-selected for Raman Fellowships for Post-Doctoral Research for Indian
Scholars in United States for the year 2013-14, awarded by UGC.
19. Dr Sumita
Acharjee, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat-
selected for NER Overseas Associateship 2013 – 2014
20. Dr. (Ms.)
Madhumita Barooah, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat-
selected for NER Overseas Associateship 2013 – 2014
21. Dr Sumita
Acharjee, Assistant Professor Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU,
Jorhat selected for Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science
and Technology Fellowship, USDA.2014 – 2015
22. Dr.
Priyadarshini Bhorali, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural
Biotechnology, AAU, has bagged the ‘Norman E. Borlaug International
Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship (Borlaug Fellowship) 2016.
1. A WORKSHOP ON NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING DATA ANALYSIS 13th-14th June 2016, organized by Distributed Information Centre (DIC) Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, Assam, India, Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi.
2. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted ICAR-Short Course on “Molecular approaches for plant disease diagnostics and resistance mechanism” from 3rd to 12th November, 2016.
3. Hands on Training in Molecular Modeling & Molecular Dynamics Simulation, March 27-29, 2017 organized by Distributed Information Centre (DIC) Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, Assam, India, Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi.
4. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “e-Education in Agricultural Sciences in the age of Social Distancing: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies” on June 25, 2020
5. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “Genome Editing in Agriculture: Current status and Prospects” on Mar 25, 2021.
6. Department of Agril. Biotechnology, AAU, Jorhat, in collaboration with DBT-NECAB, AAU, Jorhat, conducted National Webinar on “Microbial Biotechnology in Agriculture and Industry” from April 26
to May 01, 2021.
1. Dr. Bidyut Kumar Sarmah,
Director, DBT-AAU Centre, and Professor, department of agricultural
biotechnology, AAU, has been awarded the prestigious Norman Borlaug
Chair by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New
Delhi. Professor Sarmah is the first agricultural scientist from the
Northeast to have been selected for this honour. Professor Sarmah will
hold the chair as a national professor for a period of five years and will
receive a grant of Rs 2.5 crore for conducting research on development of cisgenic
chickpea resistant to pod borers. The Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
chickpea, developed by AAU, is one of the two genetically modified (GM)
crops that was recommended for deregulation at a meeting, held to discuss
deregulation of GM crops in India, in New Delhi on February 23, 2017.
2. Dr Madhumita Barooah and
her research group standardized the traditional Rice Based Alcoholic Beverage
(RAB) brewing procedure. The technology has been transferred to few agri
entrepreneurs for commercialization and the product is expected to hit the
market soon.
3. Dr. Madhumita
Barooah- Bagged the prestigious grant for organizing an India-UKIERI joint
workshop entitled “Water for All: Addressing Issues Surrounding Water Quality,
Quantity and Waste Water Treatment in India” under the collaboration between
Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India and UK India Education
& Research Initiative (UKIERI). UK Coordinator: Virginia Panizzo Clive
Granger Building, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG27
2RD
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