Life Sciences - XL - SECTION J: BIOTECHNOLOGY

Advanced techniques in gene expression and analysis: PCR and RT-PCR, microarray technology, DNA fingerprinting and recombinant DNA technology; prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems; Vectors: plasmids, phages, cosmids and BAC.

Architecture of plant genome; plant tissue culture techniques; methods of gene transfer into plant cells and development of transgenic plants; manipulation of phenotypic traits in plants; plant cell fermentations and production of secondary metabolites using suspension/immobilized cell culture; expression of animal protein in plants; genetically modified crops.

Animal cell metabolism & regulation; cell cycle; primary cell culture; nutritional requirements for animal cell culture; techniques for mass culture of animal cell lines; application of animal cell culture for production of vaccines, growth hormones; interferons, cytokines & therapeutic proteins; hybridoma technology and gene knockout; stem cells, its application in organ synthesis; gene therapy; transgenic animals & molecular pharming.

Industrial bioprocesses: microbial production of organic acids, amino acids, proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, polyhydroxyalkanoates, antibiotics and pharmaceuticals; methods and applications of immobilization of cells and enzymes; kinetics of soluble and immobilized enzymes; biosensors; biofuels; biopesticides; environmental bioremediation.

Microbial growth kinetics; batch, fed-batch and continuous culture of microbial cells; media for industrial fermentations; sterilization of air and media, design and operation of stirred tank, airlift, plug flow, packed bed, fluidized bed, membrane and hollow fibre reactors; aeration and agitation in aerobic fermentations; bioprocess calculations based on material and energy balance; Down stream processing in industrial biotechnology: filtration, precipitation, centrifugation, cell disintegration, solvent extraction, and chromatographic separations, membrane filtration, aqueous two phase separation.

Bioinformatics: genomics; proteomics and computational biology.