The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Two scientists get national award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Two scientists get national award

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Saumitra Das from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Apurva Sarin, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, are among the winners of the National Bioscience Awards for Career Development.

Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal presented the award at the National Institute of Biotechnology in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The awards, which comprise a purse of Rs. 1 lakh and a gold medal each, were instituted in 1999 by the Union Government's Department of Biotechnology to recognise outstanding research by bioscientists.

Dr. Saumitra Das won the award for successfully demonstrating that the "Ribosome" assembly on the Hepatitis C virus RNA can be effectively targeted at two different steps by using either a "small RNA" or a "synthetic Peptide," which can be tried in combination as a multi-drug approach.

When contacted, Dr. Das told The Hindu that the award is an encouragement for research. "This kind of money with no strings attached will definitely help, especially at an early stage of research.

There is now a lot of interest in biotechnology. We have to attract a lot of students to this field," he said.

Dr. Das, who is working as an associate professor at the IISc., obtained his Masters degree and Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta, before completing his post-doctoral research at the University of California.

He has made significant contributions in the elucidation of the fundamental mechanism of "Internal Ribosome Entry Site" mediated translation of viral RNAs.

Cell protein

The mechanism is unique and fundamentally different from the host cell protein synthesis.

The other awardee, Dr. Apurva Sarin's pre-doctoral studies were at the University of Delhi, doctoral work at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and post-doctoral work at National Cancer Institute, NIH, U.S.

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