HORIZON CAMPUS SPECIALIZES IN ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
With the vision of becoming the country’s leading campus for life sciences education, Horizon Campus now offers degrees with a special focus on environmental biotechnology.
Mr. Medhisha Gunawardena, (Lecturer/ Faculty of Science) said “environmental biotechnology is the branch of biotechnology that addresses environmental problems, such as the prevention of environmental pollution, removal of pollutants, renewable energy generation or biomass production, by exploiting biological processes. The major benefits of environmental biotechnology are that it helps to keep the environment safe and clean for the use of the future generations
He further commented “the applications of environmental biotechnology are becoming a benefiting factor for the environment with applications that includes bio-sensing, bioremediation, water treatment, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, sequencing and imaging processes are providing large amounts of information and new ways to improvise the environment and protect the environment. As such, it has today become a rapidly developing and increasingly important branch of science.”
Speaking of the degree offered Mr. Gunawardena, stated “the primary goal of the course is to present and discuss basic concepts of biotechnology, with special focus on environmental biotechnology. A comprehensive review of different applications in industry, medicine and agriculture is given. A great part of the course presents and discusses environmental applications of biotechnology, ranging from biotechnological processes for biofuel production to waste water and solid waste treatment and bioremediation.
“It is a signature program that set us apart from other campuses and offers a thorough grounding in state-of-the-art biotechnology and combining this with training in enterprise and commercialization. This includes developing the theory of genetics and molecular biology in parallel with skills training in practical techniques such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, recombinant DNA methods, and basic and advanced bioinformatics. Current streams include the application of biotechnology to Plant and Animal Breeding, Environmental Biotechnology, Genetics and Genomics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, conservation and Commerc i a l i z at i o n , ” s ays Mr. Gunawardena.
He added that a dynamic research infrastructure is also in place, that provides access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, laboratory space, and expertise that enables students to make breakthrough discoveries.
Assessment methods include essays, exams, laboratory reports, preserntations, field research and projects.
He explained that upon completion of the degree, the students will have a good knowledge in environmental biotechnology to tackle food security issues, have the knowledge and skills in use and developing environmentally friendly techniques to resolve environmental pollution, have the ability to develop marker systems for assay of genetically modified organisms and monitor environmental pollutants as well as waste treatment and removal.
“Our aim is to play a key role in the sustainable development of our country’s natural resources and to produce scientist’s that will be able to take the lead in making this happen” concluded Mr. Medhisha Gunawardena.