Career Talk: Biotechnology
Thursday, July 27, 2006
"Biotechnology" seems to be the in thing these days and there's much hype about it all around the world. Even here for that matter, the government is going all out to make this a profitable industry. Bionexus is the thing in building now and they are looking forward in tapping the wide Malaysian Biodiversity as well as the Malaysian Agriculture.
Studying Biotechnology in UPM is a great experience as I find it to be one of the best IPTA's for biotechnology studies and research. We actually have our own faculty here, the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences which comprises 3 courses ( Biotechnology, Microbiology and Biochemistry) which has many aspects in common.
For the first year of this course, we are generally exposed to basic courses which are theoretical such as 2 levels of biochemistry, microbiology, biophysical chemistry , genetics and molecular biology. There will be also an Introduction to Biotechnology Paper which would give the student an overall view on what Biotechnology is all about and some scope on its different branches. Baisc techniques such as spectrophotometers, Thin layer chromatographies and other Microbial techniques such as streak plates will be covered in the first year
In the second year, students are introduced to the application side of biotech...basically a few subjects from each branch of biotech..subjects include Genetic Engineering, Enzyme Technology, Plant and Animal Cell Tissue Culture, Fermentation Technology and Instrumentation in Biotechnological Research. Basically students should start grasping the principles and techniques during the second year.
From this, students are required to branch out in the final year to one of the major areas in biotech..the ones offered are Molecular Biology ( which includes DNA and gene technology), Plant Biotechnology, Environmental Biotechnology, Industrial Biotechnology and Food Biotechnology. A 2 months industrial training is necessary and so is a final year project.
Currently, UPM's Biotech programme is of a 3 year duration but is supposed to be upgraded to a 4 year programme in a year. This would add more value to your programme since biotechnology being of a wide scope is not sufficiently covered in a year 3 period. The lecturers here are highly experienced and knowledgable besides having a good research track record. The course is conducted fully in English by the way and you would definitely need a CGPA of 3.7 to 3.9 to enter..nothing lesser than 3.7 as far as i know.. The classroom environment is good and competitive and there's somewhat an average of 3 Indians per batch...maybe more next year...who knows??
Biotech is a good field to be in since its being all hyped about..and if you wanna study biotech, UPM would be ur safest bet..so welcome aboard..
Praveen Reginald
Biotech,UPM
[admin's note: Special thanks to Ms. Praveen for the article. I'm sure our readers would benefit from this. To the readers, please kindly leave ur queries as comments]
