Fishing for Knowledge

Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) leverages SAS for Quantitative Genetics Analysis

From a small training Institute at inception in the year 1961, the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai, today stands as a premier institute in Fisheries Education not only in India but also in the neighboring Afro-Asian Countries. CIFE has the distinction of becoming the first Fisheries University in India and being the only Fisheries University in the country.

Offering Masters Degree in Fisheries Sciences in nine disciplines, viz. Genetics and Biotechnology, Microbiology and Pathology, Nutrition and Biochemistry, Fisheries Business Management, and Ph.D. degree in eight disciplines, CIFE is the dream come true for the entire student community with interest in fisheries science & technology. CIFE is also recognized as the preferred destination for all the research work conducted on fisheries science & technology.

In order to impart quality education to the students at CIFE, the institute has always endeavored to get the best hardware and software from all over the world so that the results delivered are the best in the field of fisheries science.

To ensure that the statistical analysis of the data generated by the various research groups and the students were accurate and provided meaningful inferences, there was a need of the best-of-the-breed software & solutions that could help in research of data in various disciplines of CIFE including the Genetic Data Analysis.

The Challenge: Quantitative Genetic Analysis
The Department of Fish Genetics & Bio-Technology at CIFE was unable to handle the large breeding data with the existing software solutions and also the scientific community was finding it difficult to get their research data analyzed with better precision.

With other statistical software not driving Quantitative Genetic Analysis to the degree of desired accuracy there was a distinct need of software that could perform statistical analysis which is accurate and could assist in meaningful inferences. And this need could be satisfied only with the software that was recognized as the solution not only for the routine data analysis but also for Breeding Data Analysis.

Why SAS?
CIFE chose SAS to address its requirement for powerful and sophisticated Quantitative Genetic Analysis. Globally being recognized as the solution for Breeding Data Analysis, SAS was the obvious choice to compute the breeding values of the brooders, the inbreeding coefficients of the brooders and to perform Genetic Data Analysis.

Explaining the rationale behind the choice of the SAS Academic Software for Genetics Analysis,
Dr. S.C. Mukherjee, Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) said, “The advanced functionalities & versatility of SAS solutions coupled with its global recognition of being the solution for Scientific Data Analysis in general and Breeding Data Analysis in particular, made SAS an obvious choice to meet our Research Data Analysis needs at CIFE.”

Key Benefits
The SAS Academic Computing Software at CIFE has helped in driving confidence in the student & research community to generate better and accurate research analysis. By helping in estimation of accurate breeding values of the brooders to defining inbreeding coefficients of the brooders, SAS has been instrumental in improving capabilities and research output of the Fish Genetics and Biotechnology Division at CIFE.

According to Dr. S.C. Mukherjee, Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), “SAS solutions help us in performing accurate & meaningful Research Data Analysis in general and Quantitative Genetic Analysis in particular.”

With increased training and better knowledge of the powerful capability of SAS Analyst module, the Central Institute of Fisheries Education is confident that it will play a significant role in enhancing the capabilities of students and improving the accuracy of research.