About us

The Backdrop

Molecular Biology is one of the most exciting branches of science in the 21st century. On one hand, it has significantly advanced our knowledge of how life works at the level of molecules and has proved invaluable for almost every branch of experimental biology. On the other hand, molecular biology techniques serve as the foundations of biotechnology which in turn has applications ranging from modern medicine (e.g., gene therapy and molecular medicine) to ecology and conservation biology. Therefore, most countries, including India, have been investing a good portion of their research budget into funding molecular biology-related projects. At the same time, there has been a lot of emphasis on molecular biology education at the Bachelors and Masters level. In spite of these efforts, Bachelors and Masters students in India often find themselves inadequately prepared in terms of molecular biology techniques. This is because these techniques are typically complex, time-consuming and require expensive instruments and chemicals. As a result, in many colleges and universities of the country, students only get to see demonstrations of techniques like PCR and cloning, and are never able to do these experiments on their own. Consequently, they are never able to appreciate the link between the theory and the practice of the subject. More critically, many such students actually get to do these experiments for the first time either during their projects or directly on the job, where they are often expected to learn these techniques on their own or under minimum supervision. Some are able to cope, many can not.

These workshops try to ameliorate the above situation through basic and advanced hands-on workshops that expose students to a number of molecular biology techniques. In the process, it encourages students to think like molecular biologists, and explore some of the exciting possibilities offered by the subject.