The Department of Microbiology at Maulana Azad Medical College is at the forefront of teaching the principles and art of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious diseases to Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Ph.D students.The Laboratories in the Department are well equipped with latest equipment, such as Vitek-2 Compact System, BAC/T Alert System, DNA Sequencer, Cobas Taqman 48 Analyzer, BD FACS Count System and Fully Automated ELISA processor.The deparment has number of publications in peer reviewed scientific journals and some of them are authors' of well-known text books in the field of Microbiology, and are acknowledged as leading experts in various forums.
The HIV Laboratory in the department functions as a State Reference Laboratory (SRL) for HIV under the aegis of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Ministry of Health & Welfare, Government of India. The SRL monitors the quality of HIV testing of the 26 linked ICTCs and PPTCTs as per the NACO guidelines. The HIV Laboratory also provides facility for absolute CD4-T-Lymphocyte count by flow cytometry (BD FACS Count System) to not only the patients registered at the ART Center at Lok Nayak Hospital, but also the ART Centre at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Dilshad Garden. In addition, the HIV Laboratory houses the Integrated Counseling & Testing Centre, which provides laboratory testing and counseling services for HIV to direct walk-in and referred clients. The HIV testing performed by rapid tests has been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL) as per International Standard, ISO15189:2012.
Two hundred and fifty undergraduate MBBS students join the undergraduate course every year and continue till they pass out after spending one and half years affiliated to this Department. MBBS students get adequate exposure to the field of Clinical Microbiology through various teaching-learning methodologies, such as lectures, practical demonstrations, micro-teaching sessions, hands-on practical sessions, formative and summative assessments as per the guidelines issued by the University of Delhi & the Medical Council of India. In the vein this department organizes teaching and training programmes for BDS and B.Sc. (Nursing) students. In addition, short term training is imparted to several students pursuing courses, such as M.Sc (Microbiology & Biotechnology), B.Sc (Biotechnology & Biomedical sciences), B. Tech (Biotechnology) and Diploma MLT, at other institutions.
Eight postgraduate students are enrolled in the department every year. The Postgraduate students are selected on the basis of national competitive entrance exam, for which there is a fierce competition. During their 3-year stay in the department, they are intimately involved in learning various laboratory techniques in Clinical Microbiology, interpretation of laboratory results and correlation of laboratory results with clinical findings. In addition, the PG students have to undertake thesis work under the guidance of the faculty members, which equips them to develop a scientific temper. The students are encouraged to present their research work in various national and international scientific fora.
