To recognize the outstanding contributions of young scientists in basic and applied research covering all the
areas of biosciences & biotechnology,
up to ten awards are given each year subject to the availability of suitable
candidates. Each award carries a cash prize of Rupees one lakh, a research
grant of Rupees three lakhs per year for a period of three years,
and a citation. The candidate must
be a citizen of India and actively working in basic or applied areas
of biosciences and biotechnology
in the country. He/she should be below the age of 45 years as
on 31st December of the year preceding the award. Scientists are nominated in the prescribed proforma for consideration
of the award by the following categories of persons or organizations:
Secretaries
of S&T Departments/ User Ministries/ Departments e.g. Atomic Energy, Commerce, Environment &
Forests, Health and Family Welfare, Human Resource Development, Industry,
New and Renewable Energy, Earth Sciences, Space; Members of the Scientific
Advisory Committee- DBT; Standing Advisory Committee (Overseas) – DBT; Directors General of Scientific Organizations (CSIR, DRDO, ICAR,
ICMR); Presidents of Scientific Societies and Academies of All India character;
Chairman UGC; Vice Chancellors/ Directors of Universities / Deemed Universities;
Heads of R&D Institutions; Directors of National Research Laboratories
and Member (Science), Planning Commission.
Nominations
from individuals sponsoring their own names are not considered. The nominations should include a brief project proposal for future research along with
the biodata of the candidate in the prescribed proforma.
The
selection of candidates for the award is done by an Expert Committee,
specifically constituted by the Department of Biotechnology, purely on their scientific merit. The contributions made by the candidates
through their work in India
especially during the last five
years are the major criteria for the selection.
Dr. Sanjeev
Galande is presently working as
Scientist D at the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune. He obtained his Ph.D
in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The Indian Institute of Science and
did post-doctoral work at The Burnham Institute, La Jolla Cancer Research
Centre, USA and Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, University of California, USA.
He has studied dynamic changes at the level of chromatin
architecture during various immunological phenomena such as activation and
differentiation of T cells and pathogenesis of diseases involving T cells. His
group identified involvement of a
T-lineage-enriched host factor SATB1 during the early events in HIV-1 life
cycle. He has contributed a number of
innovative technologies for biological research including a novel cassette for
expression and purification of recombinant proteins.
Dr. Galande has published in peer reviewed national and
international journals. He is an
elected member of American
Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and
American Society of Microbiology (ASN). He is a recipient of International Senior Research Fellowship
from Wellcome Trust post-doctoral fellowship from United States, Department
of Defense Army Medical Research and Breast Cancer Research Program of the
State of California, USA.
The National Bioscience Award for Career Development for
the year 2006 is conferred on Dr. Sanjeev Galande for his significant findings
on dynamic changes in higher order chromatin assembly which governs gene expression in a spatial and
temporal manner.
Dr. Kumaravel Somasundaram is presently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology
and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He obtained his Ph.D on Streptomyces genetics from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He
did post-doctoral work at the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago, USA and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of
Pennsylvania, USA.
His main interest is to
understand the molecular
mechanisms of eukaryotic cell transformation with an underlying objective to
develop novel diagnostic markers and methods, therapeutic targets and new
drug/gene based therapeutic methods. His studies aim at understanding the
mechanism of function and regulatory pathways of members of the tumor
suppressor family: p53/p73,BRCA1/2 and AP-2. Oncogenes encoded by DNA tumor
viruses ,in particular that of adenovirus and human papilloma virus, were used
as model system. He has used cancer derived cell culture system, animal tumor
model systems and tumor biopsy materials for
studies.
Dr. Somasundaram has published
papers in peer reviewed national and
international journals. He is recipient of prestigious Bristol-Myers Squibb-AACR Young Investigator
Award and International Senior Research
fellowship from the Wellcome Trust, UK.
The National Bioscience Award for Career Development for the year 2006 is
conferred on Dr. Kumaravel Somasundaram for his significant contributions in
the field of eukaryotic cell transformation and for understanding the pathways
for regulating cell growth and death in
normal and cancer cells.
Dr. Javed Agrewala is presently
working as scientist E I at the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh.
Dr. Agrewala obtained his Ph.D in
Biomedical Organic Chemistry from Agra
University.
He has demonstrated the role of CD 80 and C86 mediated signal transduction
in co-stimulation of B cells. He has proposed a novel concept of
bi-directional co-stimulation. His
strategy is being currently utilized by M/s Biogene for the treatment of
relapsed and refractory follicular lymphoma patients. He has also
established a novel and simple
vaccination strategy utilizing infected macrophages against intracellular
pathogens such as M. tuberculosis and
Salmonella.
Dr. Agrewala has
published papers in peer reviewed
national and international
journals. He is recipient of New Idea Research Talent Award of CSIR and Shanti
Swarup Bhatnagar Award-2005 in medical
sciences as well as Fellowship of the
Medical Research Council, UK. He is a fellow of National Academy of Sciences,
Allahabad.
The
National Bioscience Award for Career Development for the year 2006 is conferred
on Dr. Javed Agrewala for his outstanding contributions in understanding the
co-stimulation of T and B lymphocytes and for establishing a novel and simple
vaccination strategy utilizing infected macrophages.
Dr. G. Taru Sharma is presently working as Senior Scientist at the Indian Veterinary Research
Institute, Izatnagar. She obtained her Ph.D in Animal Physiology from I.V.R.I, Izatnagar.
Her current area of research work focuses on functional
genomics of the pre-implantation buffalo embryos. She has developed
vitrification protocol for buffalo oocytes which ensures very high recovery. She has developed a protocol for
the somatic cell development after serum starvation and their use for somatic
cell cloning in bovines and buffalo. She has also developed a protocol for the
immuno-histochemical localization of the protein and steroid hormones and their
receptors.
Dr. Sharma has published papers in national and international journals of repute. She has
been awarded Punjabrao Deshmukh Women Agricultural Scientist Award by Indian
Council of Agricultural Research and
Women Empowerment and Livelihood Award (WEAL) from the Indian Society for
Integrated Women & Child Development (ISIWCD) during the World Women Summit.
She has been awarded fellowship
by FAO and also got honorary
appointment to the professional Women’s Advisory Board by the American
Biographical Institute.
The National Bioscience Award for Career Development for
the year 2006 is conferred on Dr. G.
Taru Sharma for her significant contributions in functional genomics of the
pre-implantation buffalo embryos.
Dr. Pramod P
Wangikar is presently working as
Associate Professor at Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology, Bombay, Mumbai. He obtained
Ph.D in “Tailoring Enzyme Function in Organic Media” from the University of Iowa, USA.
His current area of research is in Computational
Structural Biology with focus on protein 3-D structure analysis and prediction
as well as fermentation modelling, optimization & control. He has developed a multi layered algorithm for prediction of protein structure. He has developed a
method based on “Geometric Invariants”
which eliminates the need for
computationally expensive pair-wise structure superposition. He is working with two model systems: rifamycin B
production using Amycolatopsis
mediterraniae fermentation and D-ribose production using Bacillus subtilis fermentation.
Dr. Wangikar has published papers in national and international Journals. He is a recipient of
EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization), fellowship, France. He has also
received several awards viz., IIT, Bombay Young Researcher Award, Boyscast
Fellowship, Dept. of Atomic
Energy Young Scientist Award and AICTE
Career Award for Young Teachers.
The National Bioscience Award for Career Development for
the year 2006 is conferred on Dr. Pramod P. Wangikar for developing a strategy
for modeling, optimization and monitoring of
fermentation and for selecting the strains of industrial importance.
Dr. Ajay Kumar Parida is presently working as Programme Director (Biotechnology) at the M. S.
Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. He obtained his Ph.D. from Delhi
University.
He has made outstanding contributions in the area of molecular characterisation of genetic resources and developing transgenic
plants resistant to abcotic stress.
He has successfully utilized molecular marker systems in mangroves and
many cultivated and wild relatives of legumes, millets and rice for
understanding species relationship and
evolving site-specific conservation strategies. His work on identification,
characterisation and transfer of novel genetic
combinations from mangroves has resulted in isolation of a number of genes for abiotic stress
tolerance and quality enhancement through large scale sequencing and
characterization of ESTs from Avicennia marina, Porteresia coarctata
and Prosopis juliflora. He has
successfully developed transgenic Rice events with some of the isolated genes.
These have been evaluated under limited field trails.
Dr. Parida is fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and National
Agricultural Science Academy. He is a member of the International
Advisory Board, Biosafety International Network and Advisory
Service of the UNIDO, Geneva. He is recipient
of Prof. Umakant Sinha Memorial Award of the Indian Science Congress
Association and B. M. Birla Science Prize in Biology.
The National Bioscience Award for Career Development for the year 2006 is
conferred to Dr. Ajay Parida for his outstanding contributions in the area of
characterization of genetic resources
and enhancement of coastal ecosystems using modern biotechnological
tools.
Dr. Pradeep Kumar is currently working as a
Scientist-F at Rajiv Gandhi Centre
for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram. He
obtained Ph.D. in life sciences from Devi Ahilya University, Indore.
Dr. Pradeep
Kumar’s primary focus is on development
and differentiation of germ cells in mammalian testis, identification and
characterization of testis-specific genes and / or gene products that may
have functional implications in spermatogenesis, spermiogenesis and sperm-oocyte
fusion, by using combinations of genomic and proteomic tools.
Genomic assays on testicular cDNA library screening, and proteomic
assays were carried out on differentially displayed proteins
cored from I D / 2 D – PAGE. The cored proteins have been characterized
by N- terminal sequencing and / or MALDI- ToF.
He is a member of the American Association
for advancement of science and Americal Society for Human genetics.
He has published many papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals.
The National Bioscience Award for
Career Development for the year 2006 is conferred on Dr. Pradeep Kumar for
his significant contributions in the area of sperm- oocyte interaction and
gene expression in testis.
PRA:NC
(Release ID :25775)