B.Tech in Bio – Technology Program
Overview
Bio-Technology
The biotechnology sector, mainly due to its multidisciplinary approach, holds the potential to provide an array of solutions for challenges in various sectors such as health, agriculture, environment, energy and industrial processes. The global biotechnology market size was valued at USD 752.88 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.83% from 2021 to 2028.
By 2025, contribution of the Indian biotechnology industry in the global biotechnology market is expected to increase to ~19%. India is among the top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world and the 3rd largest in Asia-Pacific. The Indian bioeconomy grew from US$ 62.5 billion in 2019 to US$ 70.2 billion in 2020 at a growth rate of 12.3% and is likely to register a CAGR of 16.4% to reach US$ 150 billion by 2025.
The Indian biotech industry consists of 4,240 biotech start-ups and is expected to grow to 10,000 by 2024. As of February 2022, India has almost 5000 biotech companies. India has 665 FDA-approved plants outside of the US, which is the highest in the world. India also has 44% share of the global abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA) and >1400 manufacturing plants which comply with WHO requirements. As of 2020, biopharmaceuticals contributed 62% to the Indian bioeconomy, followed by bio-agriculture (16%), bio-services (15%) and bio-industrial (7%).
4-Yr B.Tech. Biotechnology program with possibility to continue into integrated 5-Yr M.Tech. Biotechnology.
Specializations
Delivered through specific courses and intensive industry project.
Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Pharmaceutical biotechnology is a relatively new and growing field in which the principles of biotechnology are applied to the development of drugs. A majority of therapeutic drugs in the current market are bioformulations, such as antibodies, nucleic acid products and vaccines. Such bioformulations are developed through several stages that include: understanding the principles underlying health and disease; the fundamental molecular mechanisms governing the function of related biomolecules; synthesis and purification of the molecules; determining the product shelf life, stability, toxicity and immunogenicity; drug delivery systems; patenting; and clinical trials. The domain encompasses knowledge in rDNA technology such as cloning genes encoding the protein of interest into an appropriate cloning vector, finding suitable host cells to express the protein (eg Escherichia coli, yeast, insect cells, plants, or animals), designing protocols to obtain highly pure proteins (eg chromatographic purification via size-exclusion, ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction or affinity) and protein engineering to generate mutants and/or facilitate post-translational modifications.
Green Chemicals & Bio-Products
A range of environment friendly products can be produced by biotechnology. These are known as green products or sustainable alternatives of petrochemical derived products. This specialization will cover production of green products ranging from enzymes and biocatalysts, biofuels, biobased platform chemicals, among others. Global market of enzyme is worth of $ 10.6 billion and it is expected to reach $14.9 billion by 2027. Similarly, global market of biofuels is worth of $ 141.32 billion and it is expected to reach $ 307.01 billion by 2030. Therefore, biotech professionals specialized in these fields are expected to have excellent employment opportunities in future.
Digital Agriculture
The Global Digital Agriculture market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.26% over the forecast period to reach a market size of US$20.713 billion in 2025 from US$11.527 billion in 2019. Digital Agriculture is known as the use of novel, advanced and innovative technologies, integrated into one specific system or software, to allow various stakeholders such as farmers, researchers, and others, that are working within the agriculture system or a value chain, to enhance their crop yield and food production. The specialization focuses on; i) Gather farming data, including historical, predictive modelling and environmental insights to choose suitable crops with higher yields; ii) Measure performance of the site by capturing data in realtime; iii) Use digital farming data (soil, crop health, weather, etc.) to provide decision support for using exact amount or water, nutrition and optimize pest control; iv) Increase farm’s economic and environmental sustainability; and v) Predict weather changes and react proactively.
Personalized Medicine
The global precision medicine market size was valued at USD 66.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 175.64 billion by 2030 and poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5% during the forecast period 2022 to 2030. The genomics industry has a significant role to play in delivering on the promise of genomic medicine and its integration into healthcare. Precision medicine (PM) refers to tailoring of medical treatment depending on an individual’s genetic characteristics and relies on the use of data and genomics through diagnostic testing and analytics. It relies on the idea of the right intervention at the right dose to the right patient and at the right time. It is expected to deliver improved “quality use of medicines” resulting in improved quality of life for patients, as well as reduce adverse outcomes and drive down costs of treatment.
Core Technical Competencies to be Developed Through the Program
Genomics
Omics technologies, novel applications of gene/ genome sequencing in diverse biotech domains.
Gene Editing
Gene cloning, genome editing, CRISPR, genetic disorders, gene therapy, gene silencing, transgenic plants and animals.
Precision Medicine
Genomics of genetic disorders, discovery of novel drug targets, cell therapy, drug delivery technologies.
Microfluidics
Lab-on-a chip i.e. militarized labs for rapid testing in biopharma drug screening and disease modelling, facilitating point-of-care diagnosis, paper-based microfluidics for diagnostics.
Biomanufacturing
Cell cultures, fermentation, recombinant production of medical products & therapies, biomaterials, food & beverages, specialty chemicals, ML in automation, precision biomanufacturing.
Synthetic Biology
Manipulating organisms at gene networks, cellular agriculture, microbiome-based solutions, cell factories to provide valuable biochemicals in pharma, materials, and food, mammalian synthetic biology.
Tissue Engineering
Tissue grafts to treat burns, organ transplanting, regenerative medicine, cultured meat, etc.
AI & Big Biological Data
Drug discovery, biomarkers, literature mining, images classification for rapid detection, medical scans, decision support in digital agritech.
GMP & Regulatory Affairs
Product quality, safety, regulatory procedures, etc.
Bioprinting
Bioprinters, bio-inks, bio-base materials, medical applications, vascular grafts from patient’s own cells for personalized medicine
