Inviting Foreign Scientists as Visiting Professors

Director, DNA Laboratory Guy's Hospital Medical School, London,

was the first Visiting Professor and worked for a period of two weeks at the Genetics Laboratory, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, with Prof. I.C. Verma and his colleagues in March 1995. His visit has helped the unit to set up CA repeat analysis in muscular dystrophy for carrier screening and prenatal diagnosis, Southern blotting and PCR based technique for diagnosis of Fragile X- Chromosome, DNA diagnosis of myotonic dystrophy, Huntington disease and Hemophilia-A.

Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA,

visited India for a period of one month in December 1995. During this visit, he worked at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta, with Dr. J. Das and his colleagues; Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, with Prof. D. Balasubramanian and his colleagues, and at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, with Dr. S.K. Basu and his colleagues. The Ranbaxy Science Foundation and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India co-sponsored a seminar "Infectious Diseases : Diagnostics, Prophylactics and Therapeutics" on December 21-22, 1995 at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi.

Department of Paediatrics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

visited India from December 3-17, 1996, and worked with a team of eminent scientists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh. At these institutes, he conducted lectures and seminars in the areas of genetic diseases, whereby, given the population factor in India, he emphasised on the rationales for medical genetics in the country and also briefed these units on various possibilities and resource generation means for developing genetic screening and testing programmes in India.

Senior Lecturer, Department of Genetics, University of Cape Town, South Africa,

was a Visiting Scientist from November 13-17, 1996, whereby, he worked at the Genetics Laboratory of the Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and with Prof. I.C. Verma at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. During these visits, Dr Ramesar conducted several technical workshops and a series of lectures in the field of medical and molecular genetics that helped these units in assessing the role and potential applicability of genetics in India.

University of Geneva, Switzerland

visited India from March 03-11, 1998. During his visit, he worked with Prof. I.C. Verma at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, Prof V. Ramalingaswami and a team of scientists at Department of Biotechnology and Pathology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He also paid a short visit to Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, National Institute of Immunology, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi and Center for Biochemical Technology (CBT) New Delhi. His visit helped these organisations to understand and widen their knowledge base on recent trends in genomic research and its impact in medicine.

Professor of Pathology and Director Dengue Vaccine Development Project, Mahidol University, Thailand

visited India from January 9-16, 1999. He visited Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi and had meaningful discussions with Prof. N.K. Ganguly, Director General, on emerging trends and possible avenues of research collaborations on Dengue and HIV Vaccine projects. During his visit, Dr. Bhamarapravati also visited National Institute of Immunology, International Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, at New Delhi, and National AIDS Research Institute and National Institute of Virology, both at Pune, whereby he shared his knowledge and research work with the scientists of these Institutes by delivering talks on "Development of Dengue Vaccine" and "HIV Vaccine Development and Trials".

Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

visited India from October 12-26, 2005. He visited National Insitute of Technology, Surathkal, Mangalore, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Ranbaxy Research Laboratories, Gurgaon.

The objective of the visit was to understand what technology programs are underway in these institutes and how Dr. Chatterjee could foster collaborative partnership with these institutes and counterparts in USA particularly at the Johns Hopkins University as well as other Indian institutes of excellence. Dr. Chatterjee delivered the following lectures in the above institutes during his visit.

1. International Research Partnership : the USA-Singapore Connection
2. Why there is an epidemic of cardio vascular disease among Asian Indians
3. PECAM-1 gene polymorphisms in coronary artery disease patients of Indian and Chinese Origin
4. Lactosylceramide : an emerging lipid second messenger involved in cell proliferation, adhesion and angiogenesis

Besides the above lectures, the Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, organized a full day seminar, in which Dr. Subroto Chattejee was the chief guest and key-note speaker.

Centre for Research in Mass Spectrometry, Department of Chemistry, York University, Toronto, Canada,

was the Visiting Professor of the Foundation for the year 2007-2008.

Dr. Rehlan visited All India Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Biotechnology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi and delivered lectures and interacted with the scientists

The interactions and lectures by the visiting professor were focused on Proteomics Based Disease Biomarkers and Drug Targets, Clinical Cancer Proteomics: Discovery of Novel Drug Targets, Biology of Head and Neck Cancer Metastasis, Discovery of Novel Cancer Biomarkers and Drug Targets using Proteomics

Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine, Director, Research Centre for Zoonosis Control, Hokkaido University, Head, OIE World Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza, Sapporo, Japan visited India on March 20, 2010.

Prof. Kida is an internationally well known virologist and has done major work on Ecology and Pathogenesis of Influenza Viruses, Zoonoses and Vaccinology. He has been awarded the Japan Academy Prize for “Studies for the Control of Influenza-Mechanism of the Emergence of Pandemic Influenza Virus Strains in Poultry, Domestic Animals and Humans, and Molecular Basis of the Neutralization of Viral Infectivity with Antibodies”. He has 196 original articles and 107 book chapters and reviews to his academic credit.

Prof. Kida visited the facilities of Departments of Microbiology, Virology and laboratory Medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and had an interactive session with the respective faculty members.

Prof. Kida also delivered a Guest Lecture on “Avian, Swine and Pandemic Influenza” in the Board Room, All India Institute of Medical Sciences on March 20, 2010 in which he presented an elaborative study of the origin, transmission and pathogenesis of avian and swine influenza . Prof Kida’s lecture was unique and was highly appreciated by the audience and the experts.

Medical Director and Professor of Medicine, Sleep Disorders Research Program, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA, has visited India on October 7, 2010 as Visiting Professor of the Foundation.

Prof. Malhotra visited the Sleep Medicine Laboratory at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patel Chest Institute and Jawaharlal Nehru University and interacted with their scientists and delivered lectures.