About Bioinformatics Centre:

• Bioinformatics is a multidisciplinary field that involves computational studies of living systems at various levels ranging from molecular to ecological. Bioinformatics has emerged as the youngest discipline that drives basic and translational research leading to knowledge discovery in a multitude of areas such as medicine, drug and vaccine development, biodiversity, agro-biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, forensics etc. Bioinformaticians are in great demand worldwide in industry, R & D organizations as well as academia not only to analyse high-throughput data generated using omics technologies but also to lead data-driven, hypothesis-based research & development in various branches of life sciences. Students who get trained in bioinformatics and have a sound knowledge of basic natural sciences, statistics and mathematics can build a successful career. They can also contribute to development of new resources in bioinformatics such as algorithms, servers and databases.



• Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU, formerly University of Pune) is a State University with national rank of 9 among all Universities (and 18 in overall ranking among institutions for higher education and research) reflective of high standards of education & research practices. The Bioinformatics Centre at SPPU was established in 1987, under the BTIS Network project of Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, with a mandate to develop expertise in Bioinformatics through research and related activities. The Centre has been a pioneer in research as well as education in Bioinformatics. The Advanced Diploma in Bioinformatics was launched at the Centre in 1997 and M. Sc. in Bioinformatics was initiated in 2002. The Centre has been recognized as a “Centre of Excellence” by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India (2002 onwards) and by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITY), Government of India (2007-2013).



• The major research areas where the faculty members of the Centre have made significant contributions include virus bioinformatics, structural bioinformatics, immunoinformatics, genomics, phylogenomics, chemoinformatics, therapeutics and drug design. A large number of algorithms, databases, and web-servers have been developed by faculty members at the Centre. (Available at http://bioinfo.net.in & at http://bioinfo.unipune.ac.in)



• The Bioinformatics Centre offers Ph. D. and M. Sc. program in Bioinformatics to meet the requirement of trained human resource in industry, academic and research institutions. Highly competent faculty members at the Centre, conducive environment for research, state-of-the-art computing facilities and a rich library are some of the highlights of the educational program at the Centre. Scientists from reputed national institutes and other departments of the Savitribai Phule Pune University also are invited to contribute to teaching of various relevant areas in the M. Sc. Bioinformatics program. The Centre also conducts national and international workshops and training programmes on a regular basis.



• The students trained at the Centre have maintained a very good success record in various national level examinations such as BINC, CSIR-UGC NET, BET, etc. and also find placement in Industries. The Bioinformatics Centre has very good interaction with industry and carries an envious record of its students being absorbed by industry and R & D institutions in India and abroad. Some of the students have turned out to be successful entrepreneurs and produced well-established profit making ventures in a short span of time.
  For additional information please visit http://bioinfo.net.in .


Other objectives of Bioinformatics Centre:

• To function as an information base with resources of databases in the area of Biotechnology and Life Sciences


• To generate information relevant to specific areas, structure the information and make it available to interested parties


• To act as an active network node, in which scientists and entrepreneurs get access to the information resources available in the area of their interest


• To identify and implement necessary information systems and software


• To conduct seminars, workshops, training course.