MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Director's
Report 2004
I wish to extend a
very warm and personal welcome to our Chief Guest, the distinguished
agricultural scientist Dr. Gurdev Khush, the Honorable Minister for
Agriculture, Govt of Karnataka, Shri K. Srinivasa Gowda, distinguished
Members of the Governing Body and the Scientific Advisory Board of
IBAB, all other friends and guests present here today to felicitate the
second batch of students, on their graduation from the Institute of
Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology.
The Institute of
Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) was established in the
year 2001 and formally inaugurated in January 2002. It was set up on
the recommendation of the Vision Group on Biotechnology, an advisory
body to the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The first couple of years in
IBAB's life have been extremely exciting and challenging. A Post
Graduate Diploma programme in bioinformatics was initiated in February
2002 without any in-house faculty. However we were fortunate in that we
were able to avail the expertise of leading practitioners of the
various 'arts' of biology. Thus, the students were taught core science
courses by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, National
Centre for Biological Sciences, Centre for Human Genetics, National
Aeronautical Laboratory & ISRO, while insights into industrial
biotechnology, intellectual property rights issues, in silico gene
identification and drug design were provided by leading scientists from
AstraZeneca, Biocon, Monsanto, GE and others. The first batch graduated
in April last year at a function held in this very hall, concurrently
with the Bangalore Bio 2003. I am happy to report that these students
have found suitable placement in various biotech industries in India
and abroad. What is also extremely gratifying is that several of them
have been inspired by the academic exposure they received at IBAB, to
forgo well paying jobs and take up doctoral research programs at
leading universities and Institutes. Two are in India and others in
France, Finland and Germany. I am sure that they will return to make
meaningful contribution to Indian biotechnology research in the future.
The second batch of students joined the course in January 2003, again
after a national level selection process, involving a written test and
interview. The Institute has recruited three faculty level scientists
during the last year so we were able to provide more in-house academic
inputs to the students. However the continuing support of the
scientific and technical community in Bangalore has indeed been
overwhelming, and we and our students are very grateful to them. The
2nd batch of students who are graduating today, have undergone intense
academic training at IBAB for ten months. But an on-the-job internship
experience is an integral and very important part of the program at
IBAB. Based on last year’s experience and on request from Industry, the
internship program was extended from 4 to 6 months. We again succeeded
in placing all the students at leading academic and industrial
institutions all over the country and one went to France. They have all
performed well and we have received very good feedback from their
mentors. Most students have already found suitable placements in
industry, many being absorbed by the companies where they did their
internship, while a few wish to pursue research careers in academia.
Accelrys, IBM, Molecular Connections, Connexions, Biocon, Gangagen,
Millipore are some of the companies where they have been employed. The
full list is displayed on our website.
The response to the
third round of admissions has also been very gratifying and 40 young
men and women with diverse educational backgrounds have joined this
January.
I should reiterate that we do not regard the post-graduate diploma
program merely as a course that specializes in bioinformatics. Although
our focus is bioinformatics, our overall aim is to provide a
high-quality and modern postgraduate education in life science, to
students with diverse backgrounds. Whether it is computer programming
skills or understanding molecular biology, familiarization with
experimental techniques, a critical reading of the literature or
doing in silico modeling of biological systems, our attempt is to
'educate' rather than just 'teach', inculcate the habit of ‘enquiry’
rather than ‘passive reception’. In today’s 'knowledge economy',
especially the higher-end of this economy, to which biotechnology and
bioinformatics belong, a good multidisciplinary education has an even
greater value than it has had earlier and we strive to provide this.
Alongside the 16 month Diploma Course in Bioinformatics, we have in Dec
2003 initiated an intense six month course in bio-techniques, to cater
to the requirement of well trained and reliable manpower in biotech
laboratories. The course content, which primarily consists of hands-on
lab training has been devised in consultation with various biotech
companies. The first batch of four students, who have satisfactorily
completed this course, will also be receiving their diplomas today. We
hope to scale up the course considerably this year.
As I had mentioned last year, though the course content and teaching at
IBAB is of a very high standard, we lack the official stamp of
recognition as a degree giving Institution. While the placement record
of our first two batches indicates that most employers are not worried
about this, for students seeking admission to academic institutions of
higher learning it becomes an unnecessary irritant. Hence we will
continue the process of seeking recognition for our course and
eventually Deemed University status for IBAB.
Another major activity during the past one year has been the planning
and running of half dozen short-term introductory courses, to create
awareness about bioinformatics and biotechnology and some others are in
the pipeline. IBAB faculty have given lectures at more than 30
conferences and workshops, and participated in a dozen discussion
meetings. An advanced level International Workshop in Cell Biology was
conducted in January this year, with the generous financial support of
Astra Zeneca Research Foundation and academic help from NCBS and IISc.
Our grateful thanks to all of them. It was an extremely successful
effort, appreciated by the large number of participants who attended
the workshop as well as the faculty who lectured during the workshop,
two of whom traveled down from the Univ of California, San Diego. There
are requests for making this an ongoing series and we certainly hope to
do this, if the sponsors are willing to support this activity.
On the 'incubation of
entrepreneurs' front, Microtest Innovations, which is being incubated
at IBAB, is making good progress in their endeavor to develop
diagnostic kits. Discussions are on with two or three other
companies who wish to be located on our premises. IBAB also hosts the
Centre for Human Genetics, a state-of-the-art facility carrying out
research in this important area. I am also proud to report another
major development this year, related to entrepreneurship development.
The Wadhwani Foundation has selected IBAB to be one of the first five
affiliates of the National Entrepreneurship Network or NEN in short.
This Foundation, set up in 2000 by the well known entrepreneur Mr
Ramesh Wadhwani, aims to help individuals reach their full potential,
regardless of their background. Entrepreneurship development is one
such mechanism and in 2003, IBAB along with BITS-Pilani, IIT-Bombay,
IIM-Ahmedabad and SP Jain Inst of Managament were selected to be the
core members of NEN. IBAB is honored to be part of such an elite group.
This Network, which will combine the strengths of Institutions working
individually and collectively to promote entrepreneurship, will be very
effective in enhancing our activities in this area. We have already
conducted a workshop on ‘Public private transfer of knowledge in
biotechnology industry – Case studies from India and Europe’ to
kick-start the activities and many more are being planned during the
coming months.
With the teaching load of the faculty now being stream-lined, in-house
R & D is also expected to pickup. IBAB is already a partner in the
CSIR-sponsored project 'Development of versatile, portable software for
Bioinformatics' under its New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership
Initiative. Incidentally this software, developed by TCS is going to be
formally released by the Honorable President of India in a few days.
Advanced stage discussions are also going on with some leading
industries to initiate collaborative research projects and we are in
the process of building laboratory infrastructure to successfully take
up this work.
Since no educational and research institution, aiming to set high
academic standards, can survive on fees alone, financial support from
the Government of Karnataka and other Central Government funding
agencies (DBT, MIT, CSIR etc) is crucial to meet the infrastructure and
other core expenses. I am therefore delighted to report that the
Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka, at yesterday’s inauguration
function of Bangalore Bio 2004, announced the sanction of Rupees 10
crores towards setting up a permanent facility for IBAB, to be located
at the new Bangalore Helix campus that is coming up in Electronics
City. This will go a long way towards providing long term
sustainability, as well as facilitating the growth of activities at
IBAB. My heartfelt thanks once again to the Govt of Karnataka for their
continuing generous support. I do hope that the physical infrastructure
can be set up rapidly and perhaps we can host the next convocation on
our own premises.
The effort being made
to set-up an educational and research centre relevant to the needs of
the industry is rather novel in India. It is obvious that this effort
cannot succeed without constant interaction and the proactive support
of the concerned industry. As already mentioned, several corporate
organizations have been very generous in sparing their scientists to
help design and teach various modules at IBAB as well as in providing
internship opportunities and placements. I do hope that the performance
of the first two batches of students will make them favourably inclined
to do so to an even larger extent in the future. Biocon India has
already instituted a Faculty Chair position at IBAB – for which we are
indeed very grateful and hope that we will receive larger support in
future both from them and other industries.
We have received a grant to award two Chief Minister’s scholarships for
the best male and female student in each batch and Mrs. Sudha Murty of
Infosys Foundation has graciously instituted two medals for the best
performing students. Millipore India has shown exemplary generosity and
social commitment by providing funds for two scholarships to
outstanding women candidates, while Sartorius India has agreed to
support a meritorious student with life science background, every year.
These prizes and medals will be awarded after the diplomas and my
heartiest congratulations to the recipients of these prizes and all the
diploma recipients. All of us at IBAB also wish them the very best in
all their future endeavors and a happy and successful life.
Finally, it is extremely gratifying that yesterday, IBAB was referred
to in very complimentary terms by at least three distinguished persons.
While all of us at IBAB are happy and proud to be thus acknowledged, we
also recognize that there are very many more challenges ahead of us. I
look forward with great hope and confidence to IBAB successfully
meeting all the diverse and ambitious goals set by its founders.
Thank you once again for sparing your valuable time to be with us on
this important occasion in IBAB’s life.
July 2004
