Biophysics Division of the institute was a visionary outcome of the founder Professor Meghnad Saha. In the mid fifties he foresaw the immense potential of the burgeoning area where physics meets biology. With his active support the first Biophysics Division in India was started under the able stewardship of Professor N. N. Dasgupta. A competent young scientist, Sri M. L. De, under the leadership of Professor Dasgupta, built the first in-house Transmission Electron Microscope in Asia. Till date the Division has produced more than seventy PhD scholars with bright scientific careers inside and outside the country. The Professors who have, so far headed the Division are: Dr. N.N.Dasgupta, Dr. N.N.Saha, Dr. S.N.Chatterjee, Dr. S.B.Bhattacharyya and Dr. Rabi Majumder.
Currently, the research activities in Biophysics Division span both experimental and in silico biology. The specific areas are as follows: Biomolecular Recognition encompassing Chemical and Structural Biology, Biomolecular Spectroscopy, Biological Chemistry, Natural products and their effects on living systems and Structural Bioinformatics. Some of the on-going research activities have collaborative components with counterparts inside and outside the country.