The Centre for Bioinformatics, established in 2005 and upgraded as the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in 2011, is a new generation inter-disciplinary as well as multidisciplinary teaching & research department of University of Kerala, India. The centre offers a two-year innovative MSc (Computational Biology) programme with assistance from University Grants Commission and also 2 one-year MPhil programmes in (i) Bioinformatics (ii) Computer Aided Drug Design. A distance education programme in collaboration with IGNOU is scheduled for launch in 2012. Research is the top priority activity of the centre and the PhD programme of the centre focuses on both computational and life science projects. It sees itself as a knowledge generation community of researchers, teachers and students. The clear aim of the centre is to produce new knowledge in the field of computational biology, bioinformatics and allied areas to further scientific advancement and also to address problems of possible local social relevance. The centre has researchers with vivid backgrounds (Electrical Engineers, Mathematicians, Physicists, Biotechnologists, Botanists, Bio-chemists, Computer scientists are some of them). They choose to work on problem which can to generally seen as addressing question about life at molecular level. The centre has its own premises with state of the art informatics laboratory and also a molecular biology and bio-electronics laboratory which provide a balanced training to multidisciplinary talents that the centre attracts. The centre library having a stock of over 2000 specialized books is managed with custom made reader-networking software christened BookFace, modeled after the Facebook. The centre has a relatively small but well knit community of teachers, researchers, scholars and technical and administrative personnel. The centre has established a successful human resource management system which encourages people-centered activities in every sphere. Innovation is a key word for the centre from its inception.

The centre is led from its inception by Dr. Achuthsankar S. Nair and presently has 6 lecturers, an Emeritus Professor (Dr. Oommen V. Oommen), one Post Doctoral Fellow, half a dozen Project Fellows, 14 full-time research scholars and at any time, 30-40 masters students. The centre also has 2 adjunct Professors, in addition to visiting faculty and Erudite visitors [Prof. Dr. Johann Deisenhofer (Nobel Laureate - 1988) visited the center on Dec 1-3, 2010, Prof. Martin Chalfie (Nobel Laureate-2008) visited on Jan 5-7, 2011, followed by Prof. Anders Liljas (Nobel Prize Committee Member) on Jan 20-26, 2011].

The centre is supported by a variety of funding from Information Technology Department of Govt. of Kerala; Higher Education Dept, Govt. of Kerala; Dept. of IT, Govt. of India; Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India; Kerala State Council for Science, Technology & Environment, Govt. of Kerala and University Grants Commission, Govt. of India. In 2009, the centre was given the status of State Inter-university Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. In 2010, a Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology was established under the leadership of eminent scientist Dr. Pawan K. Dhar, formerly scientist in RIKEN Advanced Sciences Institute, Tokyo. For some time, the centre also housed the IP Cell of the University and also coordinated the European-Union’s Erasmus Mundus Co-operation with University of Kerala.

The centre organizes a wide variety of seminars, symposia and workshops. “Bioinformatica Indica”, an international bi-annual event is its flagship event in this regard. The centre also arranges programmes to promote creative and scientific temper in younger generation. The “One/Fun day” programme is one such.

The first batch of MPhil students of the centre created local history in 2006, launching the first University incubated company, Sooryakiran Bioinformatics Pvt. Ltd., functioning for 2 years from the University Campus. Industrial collaboration continues through consultancy work for Microsoft India and Biothera Health care.

The centre has been successful in creating a research ambiance which molds most of its masters students to turn to research. So far 23 of its MPhil students have taken up doctoral research at the centre or elsewhere. Research at the centre has resulted in one patent (pending grant) and about half a dozen good impact factor publications. Some of the publications of this centre have citations of around 25 and is growing. The centre has produced 4 bioinformatics tools which are available online and widely used. An ambitious project of the centre is to develop an electronic sensor for identifying snake venom, which is taken up by the venom-informatics team at the centre.

The centre is situated in the beautiful and green Kariavattom Campus made greener by the centre’s “Trees for 2100 AD” initiative. The open air stage outside in the centre premises has not only witnessed confluence of scholars, but also sterling performance of dance, music and creativity in many an evening. Confetti of life at the centre is embedded in this web site too.