General Microbiology deals with the world of microorganisms and is defined as the study of microbes found in and around us. A microbiologist studies microscopic organisms that include bacteria, algae, protozoa, fungi and protozoa. They study organisms that cause disease, environmental damage or stress. Some microbes have a beneficial effect on mankind and are vital elements of our surrounding. Microbiologists often use cutting-edge techniques and sophisticated machinery along with other applied fields of research like biotechnology, genetics to study microbes and their complex mechanisms.
Medical microbiology is amongst the most widely studied and followed discipline due to its great importance to medicine. Along with providing a deep knowledge and understanding of the nature of pathogens this line of study has also been applied in several immunological innovations in the field of medical science. Through the development of vaccines against invading organisms, deadly and debilitating diseases such as small pox, polio, and rabies have been either eradicated or are more treatable because of the efforts of scientists and researchers in the field of medical microbiology.
Some Microbiologists who are fortunate enough to work within the realm of environmental science are on the forefront in the fight against climate change and other environmental hazards that arise from pollution and other waste processes. They also may work on the amazing new fields such as green energy or other sustainable sciences. Many microbiologists work on ecology, attempting to explain and monitor environmental health as well as phenomena or localized concerns. Bioremediation is another process of cleaning the environment with the help of microorganisms. Microorganisms help in degrading the toxins and wastes released from industries and help clean the water of the river and oil spills at the petroleum sites. There are different types of bioremediation like biostimulation, bioaugmentation etc which are used to clean the pollutants from the environment and waste materials from the rivers and seas. These microorganisms reside in the soil and make it fertile as a result of which the growth of the plants improve and they are more nutritious.
Microbiology also has a big role to play in the industrial sector especially in production and quality control of food items, beverages and pharmaceuticals. All the foods like yogurt, cream, cheese, coffee, chocolates and many other products are produced by industrial microbiology using the method of fermentation. Food industry is making use of bacteria, for example, probiotics. Bacteria like probiotics are playing an important role in the food industry and are responsible for the synthesis of many useful products.
The primary goal of this course is to enable graduate students to attain basic laboratory skills as well as a sound theoretical knowledge in the field of microbiology. The major focus is to educate students on all important concepts of specialised fields of microbiology like bacteriology, mycology, virology, immunology to name a few.
- Provide comprehensive theoretical and practical skill and enable the students to pursue further studies in specialised branches of microbiology
- To impart sound knowledge of all application based subjects related to this field and to make them aware of the future prospects of research oriented study.
DURATION OF STUDY
3 year programme (full time)
- Work in the field of food quality control (hospitality sector)
- Project assistants/staff in research laboratories
- Quality control specialists in manufacturing industries (pharmaceuticals)
- Officers in government sector projects
- Medical scribe/transcriptionist
- Sales assistant for scientific instruments manufacturers
- Scope of further study such as master degree and research
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (FAHS) with support from Department of Agricultural Sciences and Microbiology Laboratory, SGT Hospital.
The curriculum for the course is designed to suit both medical and industrial aspect of microbiology. The major focus would be to impart laboratory skills and strong theoretical knowledge of all the core subjects through didactic medium of communication, student interactive sessions, teacher/student seminars, problem based learning, group discussions and proper evaluation throughout the year at regular intervals.
This course is based on the annual system of examination and covers around 320 hours of theory classes every year per subject for all the core subjects and likewise 120 hours for practical training and demonstration. Other modules of teaching include group discussions, industrial visits, and seminars to name a few.
|Didactic/ Student interactive session||320|
|Practical – hands on||80|
|Practical – demonstration||40|
|Home assignments/summer training||150|
|Student /teacher seminar||100|
|Tutorials /weekly test / Group discussion||180|
|Field / industrial visits||60|
Students will be encouraged to go for industrial/hospital visits as per arrangement made by the department at regular intervals in order to hone their practical skills during the entire course time of three years.
In the final year, students will be asked to submit a brief report/project on a topic of interest based on the practical subjects in the given year.
SUMMER / WINTER VACATION TRAINING/ OPTIONAL POSTING:
The students will be given assignments/project for their summer and winter vacations for which they will be required to undergo training at the hospital of their choice .The students will be asked to present their project/work report on coming back after their vacations. This will be reflected in their evaluation for internal assessments. Due support to the students will be provided for this training by the faculty.