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| Pondicherry University was established in 1985 by the Government of India through an Act of Parliament as a teaching-cum-affiliating University. It is a member of he Association of India Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The jurisdiction of the University covers a vast area including the Pondicherry Union Territory, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. The University Campus site covers an area of about 780 acres running north-south along the road. This is a magnificent sea-side are greatly sloping towards the sea on the east, with spectacular Grand Canyon-like raving running east-west. There are about 140 eminent members of faculty and nearly 71 courses in various disciplines. The academic structure of the University is designed as Directorates, Schools, Departments and Centres. |  |
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The School of Life Sciences at the university was established in 1987 with a view to enrich the teaching and research activities in an integrated manner in their areas of Biological sciences and Biotechnology. The school offers M.Sc., M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in Life Sciences and Biotechnology areas. The faculty of the school have specialised wide range of areas which include Reproductive Endocrinology, Neuro-Immunology, Bioinformatics, Plant Physiology, Systematic Anatomy, Development Biology, Pharmacognosy, Plant Biotechnology, Plant Biochemistry, Aquaculture, Biochemical Toxicology, Cytokine Biology, Enzymology, Protein Biochemistry and Biotechnology. The faculty of this school are awarded fellowships from various national and international agencies such as Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Population Council, New York, Humboldt Foundation etc. Several projects funded by many national funding agencies like the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, UGC, CSIR, ICFRE and also from the Population Council, New York, are underway at the department. The Bioinformatics Centre at Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, was established in 1991 under Biotechnology Information System of DBT, as one of the Distributed Information Sub-Centres, with a focus in the field of Plant and Animal Biotechnology. The centre caters to the needs of scientists in different disciplines like life sciences, biotechnology, environmental sciences, and related areas in Pondicherry University and neighbouring institutes. The main function of the centre is to act as a member of the BTIS Network for providing information to the interested users on topics pertaining to the relevant areas of Biotechnology. The functions of the centre include, among others, acquisition, creation and development of softwares and databases needed by the users. The centre is well equipped with modern computer and communication systems. A LAN is also installed at the centre. The centre has dial-up connectivity to BTISNET and INTERNET through the V-SAT connection with NIC and DOE. The services offered by the centre include both online search through the Internet and offline search through the CD-ROMs. The offline databases procured by the centre include : current contents, reproduction databases, Medline, AGRICOLA, Agris and Toxline etc. The centre is actively involved in the development of databases, softwares and training of manpower. The important databases developed by the centre include : Directory of Scientific Personnel, Medicinal Flora, etc. Several training programmes/workshops have been organised successfully by the centre to train the researchers in the field of bioinformatics. The centre brings out a newsletter entitled “Binfo Track”, discussing the latest biological research and bibliographies in current topics. The centre also contributes to the regular curricula of the university by offering a Post Graduate Diploma in Bioinformation Technology and a separate course in Bioinformatics. The centre also participated in various national symposiums and workshops. CONTACT FOR DETAILS Dr.
P.P. Mathur
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