RCB

a profle
Regional Centre for Biotechnology
2
The Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) is an autonomous insttuton of Educaton,
Training and Research established under the auspices of the United Natons Educatonal,
Scientfc and Cultural Organizaton (UNESCO), by the Government of India (GoI), Department
of Biotechnology. Designed to be a Centre of Excellence in biotechnology, RCB aims to be
a platorm for innovaton, enterprise and industrial development. As an insttuton, RCB
is benefcial to all countries in the region including India in carrying out biotechnology
research of the highest caliber and developing highly skilled knowledge-rich human resource.
Associaton with internatonal organizatons such as UNESCO facilitates RCB to provide world
class educaton, conduct quality research and foster global connectvity and cooperaton.
The mandate of RCB is to provide a platorm for biotechnology educaton, training and
research at the interface of multple disciplines. The programmes of the Centre are designed
to create opportunites for students to engage in mult-disciplinary research where they
learn biotechnology while integratng engineering, medicine and natural sciences to provide
solutons for human and animal health, agriculture and environmental technologies.
RCBs Mission :
To integrate science, medicine, and engineering to enable novel and afordable solutons
in health, agriculture, environment and energy resources.
To produce human resource, partcularly in areas of new opportunites and also to fll
talent gap in defcient areas.
The Government of India and UNESCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July
14, 2006 to establish Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB). The Centre is now recognized as
a Category II Centre by the principles and guidelines for the establishment and functoning
of UNESCO Insttutes and Centres. Following approval from the Union Cabinet, the Centre
became operatonal from its interim campus at Gurgaon, Haryana from April 20, 2009.
Regional Centre for Biotechnology
an insttuton of educaton, training and research
Mandate
Roots
an institution of education, training and research
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Towards fulflling its mandate the Centre functons with the following objectves:
To produce human resource for building a strong sustainable biotech industry through
regional and internatonal co-operaton with emphasis on novel interdisciplinary educaton
and training programmes, currently unavailable in the country.
To develop research programmes of global quality through internatonal partnerships.
To establish technology policy development and informaton disseminaton actvites.
To establish desired infrastructure and technology platorms to support above actvites.
To enable periodic experimentaton in design and implementaton of biotechnology
educaton and training and to be a source of new concepts and programmes.
To create a hub of biotechnology expertse in the countries in South Asian Associaton for
Regional Cooperaton (SAARC) region and more generally in the Asian subcontnent to
address human resource needs.
To promote and strengthen South-South and South- North co-operatons around issues
relevant to biotech educaton, training, innovaton, commercializaton and trade and
promote a network of satellite Centres in these sub-regions.
Mandate
RCB engages in contemporary research at the interface of disciplines consttutng biotechnology
in its broadest defniton. Research programmes aim to integrate science, engineering,
medicine and agriculture in biotechnology and emphasize on their relevance to the regional
societes.
A broad range of research areas planned include:
Biomedical Sciences
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Bioengineering and Devices
Biophysics, Biochemistry and Structural Biology
Climate science, Agriculture and Environment
Biotechnology Regulatory Afairs, IPR and Policy
Research Areas
Regional Centre for Biotechnology
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RCB endeavors to be an insttuton with intmate contributons from regional countries and
academic insttutons worldwide. The following programmes have been designed with an
underlying emphasis on innovaton as the key to educaton and training methods.
Multdisciplinary Doctoral Programme has been insttuted for students who have
completed masters in any relevant discipline of natural sciences, medicine, engineering
and other related sciences. Presently RCB recruits Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) twice
during an academic year and already mentors 31 Research Fellows.
Young Investgator Post-doctoral Programme (RCB-YI award) was initated to nurture
outstanding recent PhDs with innovatve ideas and the drive to pursue novel discoveries
under the mentorship of RCB faculty. RCB-YI award has been insttuted for both Indian and
Foreign natonals on the compettve basis with inital appointment for 3 years which is
extendable on rigorous review for additonal two years.
Project Research Positons (both post-doctoral and predoctoral) are periodically flled for
specifc, tme-bound extramurally funded projects conducted by the insttutess faculty
and are announced in a need-based manner from tme to tme.
Short-term Training Programmes are conducted at RCB by inductng post-graduate
students of science from various universites/insttutons/colleges to carry out their
project/ dissertaton work towards partal fulfllment of their postgraduate degrees.
Advanced Workshops/Training Courses arranged by RCB periodically throughout the
year, covering various fronter areas that could be broadly classifed under biotechnology
keeping in view the mult-disciplinary nature of the subject. During the week-long
workshops, expert in-house and invited faculty deliver lectures and provide hands-on
training to expose the partcipants to contemporary science/technology and explore their
utlity for addressing research problems in specifc scientfc areas.
Academics and Training
an institution of education, training and research
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New initatves are also being
contemplated to fll-in relevant/gap areas,
like a Masters programme in Medical
sciences (MMSc) is being planned with
the objectve to provide knowledge in life
sciences emphasizing on human biology,
clinical and translatonal research. The
programme shall be ofered deriving not
only the in-house expertze at RCB but
also the expertse and knowledge from
natonal level insttutons including those
in the immediate neighborhood such as
All India Insttute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS), Natonal Insttute of Immunology (NII), Translatonal Health Science and Technology
Insttute (THSTI), Natonal Insttute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) and others.
Short-term training programmes in platorm technologies towards skill development in
multple areas such as cell and tssue engineering, nano-biosciences, biomedical engineering,
climate sciences and energy resource management are planned. Towards contributng to
critcal human resource generaton, short-term training programmes on relevant topics
designed specifcally for physicians, engineers and entrepreneurs have been planned for the
near future.
Research groups headed by RCB faculty pursue research in various fronter areas of
biotechnology with a common goal to excel globally in their respectve areas of expertse. In
additon, RCB provides an environment that encourages creaton of unique and novel niche
research areas at the interface of diverse disciplines, by encouraging research collaboratons
with scientsts both within and outside the insttuton. In an on-going process, facultes with
potental for intellectual leadership as well as passion for research and teaching in various
fronter areas of biotechnology are being recruited through a stringent search-cum-selecton
process.
RCB Faculty
Academics and Training
Regional Centre for Biotechnology
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Leading infrastructural and technological tools, facilites and advanced laboratories form
a vital ingredient towards making cutng edge science a reality. RCB has established
necessary infrastructural facilites in its interim campus at Gurgaon where it is presently
functoning. Centre is expected to expand further when it moves to its permanent campus
in Faridabad, within the NCR Biotech Science Cluster, later this year. Presently, RCB has
established major specialized facilites that include: high resoluton optcal imaging (Atomic
Force Microscopy, Confocal Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy), synthesis chemistry
facilites, Protein sequencer, Protein purifcaton systems, biophysical (Isothermal Titraton
Calorimetry, Diferental Scanning Calorimetry, Circular Dichroism, SPR, NMR, FTIR, Dynamic
Light Scatering), structural biology (Crystallizaton Robotcs, X-ray Difracton), proteomics
(ABSciEx Triple TOF 5600), fow cytometry, plant, bacterial and animal cell/ tssue culture
facilites, tssue sectoning and insect culture facilites.
In additon, researchers at RCB have access to the Advanced Technology Platorm Center
(ATPC) of the Biotech Science Cluster Faridabad. The ATPC already houses an operatonal
fow cytometry and proteomics facilites. Other high-end facilites planned to be operatonal
in near future include complete optcal imaging, electron microscopy and next-generaton
sequencing.
Research Facilites
an institution of education, training and research
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Towards fulflling its mandate, RCB is
spreading its wings across the globe
by collaboratng with various natonal
and internatonal insttutons of
repute. The partnerships are meant
for exchange of ideas, informaton
sharing, training, networking,
conductng scientfc colloquia,
workshops, academic exchange
programmes and student study visits
within (and outside) India and for
students of the Asia-Pacifc region.
RCB and the Natonal Insttute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST), Japan
announced a partnership to further capacity building initatves in bio-imaging and biotechnology.
The agreement ofers an excellent opportunity for both the insttutons in capacity building,
training and research collaboratons, beneftng young scientsts not only in India and Japan,
but also from the UNESCO member countries in the Asia-Pacifc and SAARC regions.
In its contnuing efort to fulfll the core mandate, RCB is actvely engaged in a range of
research and related actvites in partnership with other academic insttutons, which form
part of the NCR Biotech Science Cluster, Faridabad. Shared facilites such as Advanced
Technology Platorm Centre (ATPC), and Bioincubators (supported by Biotechnology Industry
Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)), which is meant to support the budding biotechnology
entrepreneurs, are being established.
Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) is an insttuton of internatonal importance in
biotechnology, educaton, training and research. Board of Governors (BoG) comprising
eminent scientsts and specialists in the feld of biotechnology, representng Government of
India and UNESCO are responsible for the governance of the Centre. The Programme Advisory
Commitee (PAC) comprising of reputed experts within India and abroad provide support and
guidance for the Centres educaton, training and research programmes. On behalf of the
Governing body, the Executve Director executes policies and functons of the Centre with the
guidance of a duly consttuted Executve Commitee.
Partnerships
Governance
www.rcb.res.in
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