OU's department of life science bags Rs 10 Cr fund for teaching, research

Hyderabad: The Department of Life Sciences, Osmania University, was granted Rs 10 crore fund for integrating teaching and research in the department on Friday. The fund was granted under the Boost to University Interdisciplinary Life Science Departments for Education and Research (BUILDER) Programme by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. It will help the university in improving the infrastructure for teaching and research activities for 5 years.

“The departments of biochemistry, botany, genetics, microbiology, zoology and two research centres, namely - Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Institute of Genetics, will be able to have better facilities in research and teaching with the grant sanctioned under BUILDEr programme,” said Arvind Kumar, in-charge Vice-Chancellor of the university.

The participating life science departments have jointly applied for this funding under the guidance of Prof. K. Pratap Reddy, Principal, University College of Science. The inter-disciplinary research envisaged in this programme is in the advanced areas of genomics, therapeutics, and nanotechnology for medical and industrial applications. Prof. Kandasamy Ulaganathan, Director, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, will be the coordinator of this programme.

On Thursday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the officials to conduct the final semester exams for undergraduate and postgraduate students of all the universities in the state as per the guidelines of the University Grants Commission. Osmania University is expected to set the new guidelines for the final semester examination.