The Institute of Biotechnology Our institute locates in the 6, 7 and 9th floor of Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environment Science Genetic BLDG C, occupying more than 6000 square meter laboratory place. As a key discipline of Zhejiang University, one of the top universities in China, our institute houses and shares some of the national preeminent resources for the study of plant pathology and plant-microbe interactions. The spacious greenhouse facility offer controlled conditions for plant growth. Each floor also has easy access to indoor plant growth rooms, plant growth chamber and tissue culture chamber. The laboratories are extensively furnished with modern equipment. Shared equipment rooms house modern state-of-the-arts instrumentations for micrographing, gel documentation, phosphorimaging, fluorimaging, ultracentrifugation, and more. Additionally, there are several specialized “985” platform core facilities that are in close vicinity and available to all investigators, including confocal microscope, scanning and transmission electron microscope, mass spectrometers, next-generation sequencer, surface Plasmon resonance units, freeze-dryers etc. The institute also co-founds the following two major key laboratories:

l. State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology

In 2003, Department of Plant Protection at Zhejiang University and the China National Rice Research Institute jointly established the State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology.

State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology focuses on significant scientific problems and applicable basic researches concerning rice production including rice functional genomics, genetics of germplasm improvement and innovation, abiotic stress response, mechanism of growth and development. The lab has successfully cloned some agronomically important genes such as genes controlling rice tillering and gelatinization temperature, etc.

2. Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Ministry of Agriculture

In 2006, this discipline established the Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Ministry of Agriculture.

Research areas include rice disease diagnosis and prevention, rice pest management, molecular mechanism of rice and pest interaction, genetic improvement of rice resistance against pathogen infection and pest infestation, etc.