Department of Biochemistry

About Department

The Department of Biochemistry was established in June 1989 as a constituent unit of Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Medical College, Pune. It is committed to achieving excellence in the fields of teaching and training, diagnostics, and research by imparting holistic education in the field of clinical chemistry and providing quality medical reports to the patients of Bharati Hospital.

Academic Curriculum

The Department of Biochemistry follows the Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) for Undergraduate Curriculum designed the Indian Medical Graduate curriculum as per the MCI guidelines for UG and PG since 2019.

All the new components of this curriculum like AETCOM, Self-Directed Learning (SDL), early clinical exposure (ECE) are followed by the department to the letter.

Academic Programmes

Biochemistry department caters to teaching and training of various courses like MBBS, M.D. (Biochemistry), M.Sc. (Medical Biochemistry), Ph.D. (Medical Biochemistry), B.Sc. Skill (laboratory Sciences), Physiotherapy and DMLT.

Teaching and Learning Methodology

Biochemistry department follows traditional didactic method of teaching as well as interactive small group teaching methods which includes practical’s, lecture and demonstrations, group seminars. We encourage the students to participate in other co-curricular activities like quiz (National, State, college), seminars, ICMR STS research projects, etc.

Infrastructure Facilities

College Department

The Department of Biochemistry is located on the 2nd floor of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College building and is spread over an area of 10,000 square feet area.

It has dedicated spaces for well-equipped undergraduate practical halls, lecture and demonstration rooms, library cum seminar room, research lab, specialty lab, and well-furnished faculty rooms. It is also equipped with the latest equipment and teaching aids such as LCD projectors, slide projectors, computers, laptops, etc. One of the Lecture and demonstration rooms has live streaming facility.

Service Laboratory

The 4th floor of Bharati Hospital and Research Centre, houses the NABL accredited Clinical Biochemistry laboratory with state-of-the-art equipments of highest quality and latest technology which caters to quality patient reports.

Highlights

Dedicated and Highly Motivated Faculty

Our academic fraternity is highly qualified and experienced. They keep themselves updated with the latest advancements in medical education by attending knowledge events. They also share academic and administrative responsibilities of the college and the university by actively participating in the Students' Council Committee, Institutional Ethics Committee, Medical Education Unit, Sports and Cultural events, etc.

Innovations in the Teaching-Learning process

To retain and increase the interest in the subject by encouraging students to actively participate in the teaching-learning process and exposing the UG students to various innovative teaching and learning methods like problem-based learning, group seminars, role play, etc.

Our Mission

To provide a scientific basis of life processes at a molecular level to the students and orient them towards the correlation of biochemical analysis and interpretation for diagnosis in health and diseases.
To follow the process of Total Quality Management in all spheres of clinical biochemistry laboratory functioning by streamlining all the processes and systems to achieve satisfaction.

Objectives

To impart chemical and structural knowledge about biomolecules.
To provide an understanding of the biochemical and molecular basis of disease.
To integrate biochemical events with the structure and function of the body in health and diseases.
To enable students to interpret biochemical analysis by using recent techniques.
To update the equipment and tests catalog from time to time in the clinical biochemistry laboratory to improve the quality of reports and decrease turnaround time.
To undertake research projects in areas of current interests and identify future biochemical markers for aiding accurate clinical prognosis and diagnosis.

Innovative Group Seminar Activity for The Undergraduate Students

Introduction of Activity

Department of Biochemistry is conducting the seminar for Undergraduate students since 2007.Each practical batch of 40 students used. 4 topics were allotted which used to be presented by 4 students from each batch.

The presentations were used to be judged on the basis of presentation skills, use of AV aids, question and answers, etc.

This activity was very good for individual students’ knowledge and skill enhancement.

Limitation of the Activity

However with time we came across few limitations of these individual seminars that only 16 students out of 150 were used to get benefited. However for others, it used to be a passive activity.

Innovation done this year

Therefore this year we thought of undertaking a “Group seminar” to explore curricular as well as co- curricular skills like communication, presentation, team building, leadership, etc. The students were supposed to present the topic allotted to their batch by the mode of role play, skit or any other methodology apart from conventional.

The performances were judged by the individually faculty on the basis of:

Scientific Content
Team Efforts
Presentation
Question and Answers.

The performance of Top two teams was presented in front of the whole class.

Success of the activity

The activity was very well appreciated by all the students. Almost 15 students from each batch were on the stage to perform the activity. They not only explored the biochemical part of the topic but also its vertical and horizontal aspects related to the topic. This ensured learning as a whole.

This activity became more student driven and active as before.

Following are the YouTube links for these group seminars:

Sr. No	Batch	Topic	Link
1	Batch A	Oxidative Phosphorylation	https://youtu.be/KsUhEEbjqhY
2	Batch B	Diabetes Mellitus	https://youtu.be/b2cEguILpOo
3	Batch C	Sickle Cell Anemia	https://youtu.be/QkF36Q9B77k
4	Batch D Part I	Jaundice	https://youtu.be/aoIWR6jxvVo
5	Batch D Part II	Jaundice	https://youtu.be/zi40Ik1KD5s

Achievements

Undergraduate Students

The achievements of our students make us proud. Our students have performed exceptionally well in academics. In the last five years, there have been 40 distinction holders Biochemistry in university examination.

Many students have successfully completed ICMR-STS research projects. They have also published their research work under the guidance of faculty in various indexed journals.