The Centre for Plant Molecular Biology (CPMB) was established in 1990 to take up research in plants based on cues from the science of plant molecular biology. During the formative years, the centre received liberal funding from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and The Rockefeller Foundation, USA, in the form of research grants and manpower training.
Since the inception of CPMB there have been several research initiatives in major crops with multitude objectives but leading to one broader goal – Crop improvement. Set to achieve the goals, we believed in bringing together scientists from different disciplines such as plant breeding and genetics, crop physiology, plant pathology, agricultural entomology, microbiology, bioinformatics and chemistry. Until recently there have been only two departments functioning under this centre viz. Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Department of Biochemistry.
Towards accomplishing sustained research outputs in priority research areas and with an eye on the future, CPMB has been renamed as Centre for Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology (CPMB & B) and the departments were reconstituted as well. The Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology has been bifurcated into the Department of Plant Biotechnology and Department of Plant Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics and the Department of Biochemistry remains as such. The DBT sponsored Biotechnology Information System (BTIS) has been an added component aiding in bioinformatics activities at this centre.