Our department was established in the year 1994. In our department we are offering B.Sc Biochemistry, M.Sc Biochemistry and M.Phil Biochemistry. In order to equip the students with the recent knowledge, skills and values that are vital to meet all the requirements pertaining to the standard of not only international and national level but also regional and local level, we revise the syllabus of the courses every three years. Our esteemed institution conferred autonomy status in the year 2012 since then we have revised our curriculum three times. Many new courses have been introduced that would pave way in the improvement of the employability and entrepreneurial skills within the students through the gain of deep knowledge in the area of life science.
The students have got a wide area of scope after obtaining a degree in Biochemistry. They can work with either private sector or public sector. Few areas which they can opt for after the completion of their course are:
The graduate in biochemistry can also establish himself/herself as a successful entrepreneur where they can involve themselves in the production of raw materials like starch, glucose, enzymes etc which are the basic requisites for the food industry, tannery industry, textile industry and also pharmaceutical industry. One can also establish their own laboratory. There are oceans of avenues available which could be chosen depending upon the interest of a person.
We make sure that the students who undertake the Biochemistry programme develop the skills for employability within themselves before the completion of the programme. This becomes possible because of the Skill Based Courses and the Value added Courses offered by the department. Few practical courses included in the Skill Based Courses are the courses pertaining to computer, development of cosmetics and ointments etc. Also we offer 2 certificate courses namely "Medical Laboratory Technology" and "Mushroom Cultivation Technology" to the students which has proven successful in the recent past years.
Another major step taken by the department in imparting the employability skills within the students is by encouraging them to undertake "Internship" programme during which the students will be given training for a period of one month in any reputed institute or industry or hospital, so that immediately after they complete their course, the student gets absorbed within the institute where he/she undertook internship programme.
In our department we have highly qualified and dedicated faculty members. We have faculty members with Ph.D and SET qualifications. The area of specialization of our department faculty members covers a wide area like nephrotoxicity, biofertilizers, pheromones, plant and microbe interaction, cancer etc.
The general chalk and talk method is used to brief the students mostly. Apart from that we make use of the ICT for the complex molecular mechanism discussions, learning the techniques behind the various instruments etc. We encourage the students to take up assignments and seminars. We conduct quiz programmes and slip tests regularly to make the students learn the recent happenings in the field of biochemistry easily. Also the students are allotted hours to browse through the internet, go through the journals related to their area of interest in research and also more importantly the students are made to read newspapers regularly.
In our department we have "Sumner's Club" through which we have the practice of conducting conferences, seminars, workshops, inter-collegiate competitions, guest lecture programmes etc. In the past five years we have conducted 3 National level programmes.
Our department students consistently secure university ranks both in under graduate level and post graduate level each year. We conduct intercollegiate competition namely "Biospark" every year during which students from various colleges and universities from various parts of Tamil Nadu take part in the varied events with great enthusiasm and energy.
Every year we take our students to reputed industries and instutions like CFTRI in Mysore, Tropical Botanical Garden Research Institute and Pankaja Kasthuri Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala etc. where they get more of practical exposure. In the past 5 years we have conducted 3 National Level Conferences, 1 State Level Seminar,1 State level workshop, and 2 National level Webinars during which eminent scientists and professors were invited who enlightened the students with the recent happenings in the field of biological science Our thrust areas of research includes enzymology, antioxidant activity, clinical pathology, hepatotoxicity, bionanotechnology, nephrotoxicity, plant and microbe interaction etc.
Mr.P.Palaniappan, Assistant Professor belonging to our department has received a sum of Rs.3,20,000 as grant from UGC to carry out a Minor research project on "Development of Nano-Drug delivery system for controlled cancer therapy using bioconjugated gold nano particles synthesised from Marine macroalgae Caulerpa recemosa in the year 2016.
Dr.M.Janakiraman, Assistant Professor of our department has published a book on "Enzymology". Our department owns a "Mushroom Cultivation Unit" which was established in the year 2018. In this unit we cultivate "Oyster" and "Milky" mushrooms. This unit is maintained by the students and the faculty members belonging to the department. The students are given training in the cultivation of mushrooms through this unit. The mushrooms cultivated are sold to the villagers who reside in the near premises of our college. In the past 2 years a sum of Rs.54,000 was generated from the "Mushroom cultivation Unit".
In order to make the students socially responsible we took our students to the near-by village "Thekkattur" where the students distributed medicinal plants to the villagers and along with 2 doctors they gave health awareness to the puberty girls and the pregnant women of the village. Also a free three day training programme was given to the local farmers on the "Cultivation of Mushroom".
Every year we take our students to those institutes or industries where they are given "Hands-on training" . For example we took our students to TREC-STEP, Tiruchirappalli where they were made aware of the plenty of opportunities available for the life-science graduates in the area of entrepreneurship. Also the students were taken to "Arusuvai Kalan" at Salem where they were given training on Mushroom cultivation.
Our department has signed a MoU with ACE International Pte Ltd(AIPL), Singapore which would fetch the students with a wide opportunity in internship programmes, workshops, seminars, conferences, carrying out collaborative research acitivities and most importantly job opportunity. Our department has got a well equipped laboratory with many advanced instrumentation facilities. Apart from the facilities available in our department we have a highly sophisticated central instrumentation facility which is made use of for our research activities.
Our college is one among those few colleges in Tamil Nadu who have got the approval from CPCSEA to have "Animal House Facility" where experiments are carried out on small animals. Our department is maintaining the well equipped "Animal House Facility" which is utilized for the research purpose by our post-graduate students and research scholars. The IAEC meetings are held twice in a year in which the proposals for the study to be carried out using Animal House Facility is discussed by all the IAEC members and after getting their approval, the facility is made use of. This facility helps our students to carry out their research in in-vivo, which further encourages them to take up research in their future.
The department possess department library facility in which we have 320 books which are available for the students through out the year. Not only books, but we have highly reputed journals also like the Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Journal of Genetics, Current Science, Indian journal of Pharmacology etc. The students are well placed in various fields after the completion of the course. Ms.Ponnalagu who completed her B.Sc in Biochemistry is placed as Agricultural Officer in a Government Agriculture College. Mr.A.Aravindhan is serving as Assistant Manager in Cipla, Chennai. Our department encourages our students to take part in the competitions held at other colleges and organizations. Our students have brought laurels not only to our department but also to our college by participating and winning prizes in various intercollegiate competitions conducted by other colleges and universities. Our students have won prizes in various competitions conducted by our state government also.
The faculty members belonging to our department consistently participate in FDP and refresher courses which help the faculty members to enrich themselves in various fields.
| Name | : Ms.S.KANITHA |
| Designation | : Head, Department of Biochemistry |
| Contact No. | : 9976474774/ 9486475649 |
| Email ID | : kanithaathavan@gmail.com |
.gif)
