Picture showing an illustration of genes commonly referred to as DNA.

Some of you might be graduating this year or some of you will graduate next year. You must be happy because soon you will become a graduate, but at the same time you might be thinking about “What next?”

You must be searching for course options available after your B.Sc Biotech, some of you might be thinking of choosing a course from research’s point of view, and some of you might be thinking from job’s point of view. Remember one thing nobody knows you better than yourself, only you can judge yourself better. So choose wisely, and never look for what your friends are choosing. Because each individual is different and with different capabilities.

It is advised that you continue your education further, don’t be in a hurry to catch up a job. Instead of regretting in future just complete your master’s degree as it will open up unlimited job opportunities. So just listen to your heart and choose a course which passionate you.

Think about your interest first

After B.Sc you can go for M.Sc or other courses and then Ph.D. if you want to be a hardcore researcher. For which you have to start preparing for NET/SET (SLET) competitive exams as CSIR conducts this NET twice in a year. Just remember that this is the toughest and tricky kind of exam. But once qualified, life will be easy and smooth, as you will be getting fellowship worth 25,000 Rs. per month, isn’t cool?

MBA in Biotechnology

MBA in Biotech is also a good option but only for those having interest in marketing, business, and management can go for it. It is also 2 years program.

Clinical research/Regulatory Affairs & Bioinformatics

You can do M.Sc or PG diploma course in clinical research. Clinical research is becoming popular nowadays and also has a good exposure in hospitals, Clinical Research Organizations (CRO), research labs where you can work on different projects and can earn fat money.

It is basically testing the safety & efficacy of innovated drug product on human beings before getting marketed. Biotech Clinical research is a very good combination likewise, Biotech + PGDMLT is also a superb combination.

Clinical research gives you knowledge about what is ICH-GCP guidelines, GMP/GLP, invention of drug molecule, how to get approval for molecule & to conduct a trial, toxicity study, animal trials, documents required to conduct study, how to design trial like single/double blind/open labeled study, case-control/cohort study, phase I to phase IV trials which are firstly carried out on small number of patient, then to healthy volunteers, what are adverse reactions coming after giving test product, how to create a data, clinical data management, generating Case record forms for each participated individual and many more things.

Bioinformatics

           A major activity in bioinformatics is to develop software tools to generate useful biological knowledge.

Bioinformatics mainly generates software tools to understand biological data. It is a combination of computer science, maths, biology & engineering. Different databases are there like NCBI, Gene bank, EMBL, DDBJ, UniProt, SWISSPROT, and KEGG. With access to these databases (Nucleic acid & protein databases), you can match your test DNA sequence, find out % similarity, phylogenetic relationship, the 3D structure of drug/protein molecule, metabolic disorders, genetic diseases, mutations etc. You can catch up a job in research institute, pharmacy companies where they carry out drug designing, molecular docking etc.

PG Diploma in Medical Lab Technology

Another good option is PGDMLT (medical lab technology). You can get plenty of job opportunities after this; it may be in the very small local lab to any reputable hospital. But the only thing is it requires a lot of experience to reach next promotional stage and increment unless and until you are working in government hospitals or health institute where they give you handsome salary package. You have to do this course from a government recognized institute having reputation and value.. This is of one and half year course including internship. In this course, you will get to know about how to withdraw blood samples, how to process it for hematology, biochemistry, serology, immunological analysis. How to process body fluids/urine/stool sample in clinical pathology departments, how to identify abnormality, how to count blood cells, how to make pathology reports, how to give proper diagnosis etc.

You can find a job mainly in pathology labs, hospitals, research institute. You can start with your own lab if you have valid certificate and experience.

Moving ahead you can take courses like M.Sc. Microbiology, M.Sc. Biochemistry, M.Sc Herbal Sciences, M.Sc Environmental Sciences, M.Sc. Plant Biotechnology, M.Sc. Animal Biotechnology and so on.. list is long, the criteria for choosing a course should be your interest. All courses are good, opportunities will knock your door only if you follow your passion and interest.

M.Sc Bioanalytical Sciences which is a little bit close to pharmacy field where you can qualitatively /quantitatively analyzed different molecules, handle different instruments which are used in big research institutes.

Then M.Sc Biomedical Engineering that is designing biological instruments by applying engineering principles used in labs, research organizations.

M.Sc Medical Biotechnology mainly produces pharmacy/diagnostic products using living cells or from the cellular extract which may be used as the treatment to cure diseases.

M.Sc Biophysics involves the study of all biological instruments, their applications thoroughly.

M.Sc life Science which involves the study of all science including plant, animal, microorganisms, human beings.

Different PG diploma courses are also there like in radiology technician, X-ray technician, Ophthalmology, Sonography technician, in forensic sciences. PG diploma in hospital management, healthcare industry, pharmacy business management, pharmacology, medical coding. These are short-term courses mainly.

If you do PGDMLT and clinical research an then pursue M.Sc biotech then, these two courses will provide you very good exposure and experience.

Just go to the university website and look for a list of different courses available. The list will provide you different courses in science and their eligibility criteria and duration of course.

Remember; be careful while checking the eligibility criteria, because for some courses B.Sc biotech candidates are not eligible. If you are unaware or respective college has mentioned that all B.Sc are eligible, just ask your faculty members for guidance or you can approach your seniors. Since many times students get stuck in wrong courses just because of lack of awareness and proper guidance. So students take your time and ask your seniors and teachers for guidance.