Research Facilities

M.Sc.Laboratories

The Department of Microbiology has excellent research facilities with state of the art equipment to meet the needs of the students.  The three M.Sc. laboratories (one for each of the two classes and one common instrumentation room) are equipped with all the basic instruments needed for class practicals such as weighing balances, pH meter, multiple refrigerated orbital shakers, multiple spectrophotometers, laminar hoods, BOD incubators, light microscopes, tabletop centrifuges, microfuges, water baths, agarose gel electrophoresis and protein electrophoresis tanks and power supplies, western blotting apparatus, PCR machine, gel documentation systems. 

Central Instrumentation Facility

A Central Instrumentation Facility is maintained in the Department to cater to the growing demands of research. This facility is used by both, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, and houses equipment that includes sonicator, gel documentation systems, spectrophotometer, Floor and tabletop high speed centrifuges, - 70°C rotary evaporator (Rotavapor), luminometer, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, sonication water bath, spray dryer, PCR machines, refrigerated orbital shakers, BOD incubators, refrigerator cabinets, High Performance Liquid Chromatography system, Gas Chromatography system, ELISA plate reader, anaerobic chamber, and water purification systems (MilliQ).

Autoclave Room

Two separate autoclave rooms (one for each wing of the Department) have been established for the sterilization of media and the appropriate disposal of cultures after use. This room contains large capacity horizontal and vertical autoclaves.

Fermentation Facility

The Department houses a state of the art fermentation facility for the production and downstream processing of microbial products such as enzymes and recombinant proteins.  The facility is equipped with fully automated bioreactors upto 7.5 litres capacity, and scale-up fermentors for up to 300 litres capacity.

Virology and Cell Culture Facility

A separate Virology Facility has been established. This contains a positive pressure hood, two CO2 incubators, and an inverted light microscope. The Department has also purchased an ultra-centrifuge for the purification of viral particles from funds granted under the UGC-SAP programme. 

Microscopy and Imaging Facility

An Imaging Facility housing a high-end Zeiss completely motorized inverted fluorescence microscope was also established from funds granted to the Department by Delhi University under the UGC XII Plan Grant.

Dark Room

A dark room has been set up for developing X-ray films carrying results of western blot and other experiments.

Cold Room

The Department Cold Room is used to carry out experiments that need to be performed at 4°C (such as protein purification experiments, lysate isolations).

Laboratories of Faculty Members

Other than the facilities detailed above, the laboratories of the different faculty members have also equipment to meet the students’ needs. These include  HPLC, spectrofluorimeter, crossflow filtration system, speed vacuum concentrator, AKTA protein purification system, lyophilizer, BOD, CO2 incubators, PCR machines, ELISA reader and plate scanner, automated ELISA plate washer, gas chromatography system, real time PCR machine, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis system, gel documentation systems, refrigerated orbital shakers, -20°C and -70°C freezers, nanodrop, luminometer, electroporators, hybridization oven, refrigerated tabletop centrifuges, inverted light and fluorescence microscopes, laminar flows, positive pressure hoods, spectrophotometers, sonicator, bead beater, French press. 

Seminar Room

The Seminar Room with seating capacity ~50-60 is used for pre-Ph.D. and viva-voce presentations,  Journal Club and Work presentations,  and lectures by Guest Speakers.