The fundamental mission of the Institute is to develop modern biotechnology at the UNAM, based on academic and frontier excellence research and, at the same time, the training of specialized human resources; Its objectives are:

1. Conduct research and generate knowledge in the areas and disciplines that are cultivated in the Institute: molecular biology, cell biology, microbiology, virology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, immunology, structural biology, development biology, genomics, microbial ecology and bioinformatics, among the more important.
2. Use knowledge in biology to develop competitive biological technology, preferably in collaboration with the industrial sector, aimed at solving problems in the areas of health, agriculture, industry, energy and environment.
3. Participate in the training of human resources, preferably through its incorporation in multidisciplinary research projects and in collaboration with other units of the UNAM, in particular the related faculties, and other universities.
4.  Contribute to the dissemination of knowledge in society.

Academic Organization

The Internal Council, taking into account different criteria and elements, proposed in 1982 a model of academic organization that would allow fulfilling the mission and objectives of the then Center for Research on Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, which are essentially the same as the current Institute of Biotechnology.

In this context, and considering that modern biotechnology is really a multidiscipline, it is clear to the Internal Council that without the consolidation of these areas in the Institute (and the methodologies and infrastructure linked to them), it would be difficult to have the elements necessary to develop many of the projects that seek to make relevant contributions in modern biological science in order to generate, in some cases, technologically and economically competitive biological technology, since this type of ambitious and sophisticated projects are necessarily interdisciplinary.

Additionally, the work is organized on the basis of basic research cells headed by academic leaders (always full-time researchers), which contributes to strengthening the impact and horizontal collaboration capacity of the Biotechnology Institute. In this model, currently in force, the generation of knowledge and the training of human resources in the space of major disciplines are contemplated: molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, bioengineering, cellular physiology, biostructure, bioinformatics, development biology and genomics among the most important