The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of the School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University has been sanctioned ₹1.49 crore as grant by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
The department was selected for the Level-II support of ‘Fund for Improvement of S&T infrastructure in universities and higher educational institutions (FIST)’ grants for a period of five years. This is the third award for the department.
A university press note said the sanction of the DST aimed at strengthening post-graduate teaching and research in the department, extending major facilities including ultra centrifuge, live cell imaging, Lyophilizer, Chemidoc western blotting system, CO2 incubator, UV-vis spectrophotometer, cold room and setting up of a computer laboratory.
The DST-FIST support is given to internationally competitive institutions which are into teaching and academic research.
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The Department was also considered for the grant based on its performance, and the amount of extra-mural research grants received in the last five years. It has earlier received funding under DST-FIST (twice) and the Special Assistance Programme (SAP) of the UGC.
Prof. Gurmeet Singh, Vice Chancellor of the University, congratulated the head of the department Professor P.P. Mathur on the achievement, the press note said.