Brief History of the Department :
In response to the aspirations of the people of Anantapur and Kurnool districts and the rapid progress of Biotechnology, Sri Krishnadevaraya University,sta11ed a self financing and bi-annual course in M.Sc Biotechnology with an intake of 15 students from the academic year 1998-99. Teaching faculty from all the branches of life sciences departments took part in the regular teaching and was supported well by the guest faculty invited from different universities. The course was converted into an annual course in the year 2000. The department was supported by financial aid worth Rs.20.00 lakhs during the year 2001 as one time grant from Department of Biotechnology. Government of India.
In the year 2002, Department of Biotechnology went onto Andhra Pradesh Netherlands Biotechnology Programme for the financial assistance and were allotted with a grant of Rs. 1.50 crore for the development of human resource through M.Sc Biotechnology programme and Rs.14 lakhs 5 Refresher Courses in Biotechnology under different heads for a period of 3 years and very recently it has been further extended for another 2 years. As per the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with APNL Biotechnology programme, University is offering free seats for M.Sc in Biotechnology since 2003. As a consequence of this, a separate flill-fledged department of Biotechnology started and functioning from 2004. Currently Department of Biotechnology is offering M.Sc programme. M.Phil. Ph.D and PDF in Biotechnology. The department is now operational with 1 Professor, 4 Assistant Professors and 4 non teaching staff members.