Prof. Ruchi Anand
Prof. Ruchi Anand has been awarded the 2023 Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award for Pharmaceutical Sciences, for her significant research contributions in the realm of new therapies to combat drug resistance towards design and development of new drugs.
Her research focuses on understanding antibiotic resistance and developing therapies to combat it. In her pursuit of understanding resistance determinants, Prof. Anand focused on discovering novel drug targets and drugs that can successfully “reverse resistance”. For instance, she has been involved in developing drug candidates that inhibit select pathogenic ribosomal methyltransferases. These enzymes are present in drug resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus strains, where they posttranslational modify the protein synthesis machinery, the ribosome, in the cell rendering the bacteria resistant to several different antibiotics. In particular she focused on erythromycin methyltransferases which methylate a select adenine base on the bacterial ribosome and renders them resistant to more than 50 different macrolide, linconamide and streptogramin class of drugs. To address this challenge, she identified a unique allosteric pocket in these enzymes and successfully uncovered selective compounds that inhibit function of these enzymes. She has also been involved in developing modified antibiotic conjugates that bypasses the resistance mechanism and allows these antibiotics to complete inhibit the methyltransferase pathway. This breakthrough reinstates sensitivity to existing antibiotics, effectively "reversing resistance." Her investigation further extends to the efflux mechanisms of antibiotics in multidrug-resistant bacteria, where her goal is to develop inhibitors for tetracycline receptor class of efflux pumps. Through structural biology and concerted fields, she revealed insights into allosteric relay, providing essential information for the design of effective efflux pump inhibitors.
Prof. Ravinder Goswami,
Dr. Ravinder Goswami has been awarded the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Fellowship for Medical Sciences (Clinical Research) for his contribution hypocalcemic endocrine diseases in our country. The studies have applied importance of immediate relevance from the public health point of view in our country.
Dr. Ravinder Goswami is Professor in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at AIIMS, Delhi since 1998. He is a leading investigator and has carried out significant clinical research in the field of Endocrinology in our country.
He has provided lead information on prevalence and causes of vitamin-D deficiency in India despite abundance of sunshine, predisposition and cause of osteomalacia and rickets in females, assessment of bio-adaptation at vitamin-D receptor level and an easy and practical vitamin-D supplementation schedule in India. In idiopathic hypoparathyroidism, he has contributed in understanding the pathogenesis of this disease, identifications of novel clinical symptoms and signs modifications of its treatment protocol, and ex-vivo bio-models of its salient complications i.e. ‘basic ganglia calcification’.
Dr. Santosh Chauhan
Dr. Santosh Chauhan has been awarded the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Fellowship for Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for contributing significantly to understanding the mechanisms by which autophagy maintains immune homeostasis under basal and disease conditions. His work has generated new knowledge that could be harnessed to develop new therapeutic formulations to prevent inflammatory, viral diseases, and cancer.
Dr. Chauhan group for the first time showed the molecular mechanism by which IRGM, a protein that is genetically linked with several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, controls the inflammasomes, interferons, and NF-κB and keeps inflammation under-check. They showed that IRGM suppresses gut inflammation to protect from inflammatory bowel disease in mice model. Also, they have provided a strong proof-of-concept including in an animal model that suppressing IRGM expression results in the broad antiviral state in cells including for SARS-CoV2, ZIKA virus, and Chikungunya virus, and thus, IRGM could be a strong candidate for anti-viral drug discovery.
Also, his work in cancer biology field revealed novel driver proteins that are crucial for cancer progression and tumorigenesis and could be targeted for anti-cancer therapy.
Professor T. Govindaraju
Prof. T Govindaraju has been awarded the the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award for his outstanding contributions towards the development of novel diagnostics, therapeutics, theranostics and drug delivery platforms by judiciously employing multironged concepts of chemical biology and pharmaceutical sciences. Over a decade of dedicated research efforts have resulted in the discovery of novel molecular tools and drug candidates with potential for differential detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The interest in the inverse relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and cancer resulted in the discovery of a first small molecule-based theranostic drug candidate for lung cancer. Small molecule-based theranostics has significant implications in the personalized medicine. Govindaraju has developed silk-derived formulations for sustained in vivo insulin delivery, diabetic wound healing, and stem cell-based neuronal tissue engineering, a complementary approach to tackle Alzheimer’s disease, which add value to sericulture industry and farmers. Many of his discoveries have been already considered for translation.
Prof. Debabrata Maiti
Prof. Debabrata Maiti has been selected as the recipient of
The Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award 2021
in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He has established himself as
one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of C-H
activation by designing innovative catalytic methods for
transforming organic molecules into several bio-active natural
products as well as drug molecules and materials in step and
atom-economic fashion. These conceptual developments have
witnessed significant impact on materials research,
agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals industry. At the same
time, he has successfully developed various bio-inspired
approaches by employing “eco-friendly” metals. In recent
times, his group is pursuing research in the field of artificial
metallo-enzymatic chemistry, which has seen tremendous
growth with significant value in agrochemical and
pharmaceutical industries.
Prof. DULAL PANDA
Prof. Dulal Panda has been selected for the Sun Pharma
Research Award, 2020 in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Prof.
Panda has made immense contributions to the discovery of
tubulin targeting anticancer agents and understanding their
mechanisms of action. He has also developed several
nanotechnology-based targeted anticancer drug delivery
systems. Notably, he has elucidated the role of microtubule
dynamics in the regulation of cell cycle, cell migration, and
apoptosis. Further, Prof. Panda has contributed extensively in
understanding the formation and functioning of the Z-ring that
engineers bacterial cell division. He has shown that several
accessory proteins regulate the assembly and stability of the
bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. His work has greatly aided
in establishing FtsZ as a new antibacterial drug target. He has
discovered several antibacterial agents that target the cell
division machinery of bacteria.
Prof. Srivatsan Seergazhi Gopalan
Prof. S. G. Srivatsan is selected for the Sun Pharma Research
Award, 2020 in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Srivatsan has made
impactful and original contributions in the field of nucleic acid
diagnosis and therapeutics by developing innovative probe
design approaches and chemical labeling technologies. The
platforms developed by his group have provided greater
insights into the structure and drug binding abilities of
therapeutically very important nucleic acid targets such as
bacterial ribosomal decoding site RNA and disease-causing Gquadruplex-forming DNA and RNA sequences. His nucleic
acid labeling technologies offer simplified solutions to visualize
cellular nucleic acids and enable site-directed display of small
molecule probes on target genes, which can profoundly
advance the utility of CRISPR tools in diagnosis and
therapeutics.
Prof. Arun K. Shukla, Ph.D.
Prof. Arun K. Shukla is selected for the Sun Pharma Research
Award, 2019 in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Shukla has
made seminal contributions in the area of activation, signaling
and regulation of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). These
receptors represent the largest class of drug targets in the
human genome, and Dr. Shukla’s research has direct
implications for designing novel therapeutics targeting GPCRs
with minimized side effects. In addition, Dr. Shukla’s research
program has also established the country on the international
arena in the area of membrane protein structural biology.
Prof. Gajendra P.S. Raghava, FNASc., FASc.
Professor G. P. S. Raghava has been selected for the Sun
Pharma Research Award-2018 in the field of Pharmaceutical
Sciences. He is a computational biologist who is best known
for developing free in silico products (software, databases and
webserver) in the field of biological, medical and
pharmaceutical sciences. His group developed more than 250
in silico products that is highest contribution by a single group
in the world. Thompson Reuters ranked him in top 1% highly
cited authors. His group also established experimental lab to
validated in silico predictions in wet-lab. This leads to
discovery of experimentally validated novel drug delivery
vehicles. These vehicles not only deliver drugs inside cell even
they can be used to deliver drug via skin (topical drug
delivery). His lab also demonstrate that drug delivery vehicles
developed in his group can be used to handle drug resistant
bacteria as it facilitates drugs to cross membrane of bacteria.
Dr. D. Srinivasa Reddy
Dr. D. Srinivasa Reddy has been selected for the Sun Pharma
Research Award- 2016 in the field of Pharmaceutical
Sciences. He is best known for his work in the area of total
synthesis of biologically active natural products and medicinal
chemistry using . "silicon incorporation approach" towards
identification of lead molecules of therapeutic potential. His
research group accomplished total synthesis of more than 25
natural products with impressive biological activities. A few
recent achievements from his group include identification of
potential leads: (i) antibiotic compound based on hunanamycin
natural product for treating food infections, (ii) anti-diabetic
molecule in collaboration with an industry partner and (iii) antiTB compound using a strategy called "repurposing of a drug
scaffold". Prior to joining CSIR-NCL, Dr. Reddy spent 7 years
in drug discovery pharmaceutical industry where he played a
key role in discovering a Phase-II clinical candidate. He is an
author of 82 publications and inventor in 35 patents.
Dr. Anil Koul, Ph.D
Dr. Anil Koul has been selected for this year’s Sun Pharma
Research Award in field of pharmaceutical sciences for his
contribution in discovery of SIRTUROTM (generically called
Bedaquiline) - used for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis
(TB). This is the first new drug to be discovered in last 45
years for treatment of drug-resistant TB. SIRTURO belongs to
a new chemical family and has a novel mechanism of action
i.e., blocking energy (ATP) production and thereby killing
bacteria by shutting their power supply. SIRTURO has been
approved in US, Europe and several other countries and in
2015 Indian Government approved SIRTURO for conditional
use in patients with drug-resistant TB. Till date, several
thousand drug-resistant TB patients across the world have
received SIRTURO. Dr. Koul served as Senior-Director at
Pharma giant Johnson and Johnson in discovery unit and is an
expert in pharma drug-discovery and development research.
He is member of United Nation's STOP TB program and most
recently featured in NDTVs "Every Life Counts" program. Dr.
Koul’s contribution will profoundly impact lives of TB patients
across the world.
Prof Sameer Bakhshi
Prof. Sameer Bakhshi has been awarded the Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award for Medical Sciences (Clinical Research) for his contribution in establishing affordable, cost-effective and practical models of Supportive Care in Cancer.
His pioneering work on drug repurposing has shown the utility of relatively non-toxic oral metronomic chemotherapy in some solid malignancies, and is now being considered as a therapeutic option in upfront palliative intent and end-stage cancer patients.
In the field of antiemetics, he brought a practice change by establishing the utility of the drug aprepitant and the antipsychotic drug olanzapine in children receiving highly emetogenic chemotherapy.
He has established outpatient clinical protocols for managing neutropenic fever, and also paradigms for early stoppage of antibiotics in patients with febrile neutropenia, so as to prevent the menace of development of multi-drug resistant organisms and at the same time save cost and toxicity for patients.
Dr. Kaustuv Sanyal
Professor Kaustuv Sanyal has been awarded the Sun Pharma Award for Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for his seminal contributions in fungal centromere biology. Using a combination of biochemical, genetic, and genomic approaches, Professor Sanyal and his colleagues opened up new frontiers in basic research by identifying facets, in addition to DNA sequence, that define centromere structure and function. His elegant research demonstrates that spatial proximity and high DNA sequence homology make centromeres a nexus of inter-chromosomal rearrangements. Professor Sanyal’s findings contribute a quantum leap in our understanding of genome stability, mis-regulation of which may have serious consequences ranging from diseases such as cancers in humans to drug resistance in fungal pathogens. His research also identified key molecular events leading to emergence of new pathogenic species.
Dr Giriraj Ratan Chandak
Dr Giriraj Ratan Chandak, a physician-scientist has made significant contributions in the field of genetic disorders. A former director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, he has led multiple cohort-based studies of non-communicable diseases. He has discovered novel genes for chronic pancreatitis demonstrating genetic heterogeneity with Europeans. He lead his team to identify a novel microRNA that regulates Type 2 diabetes risk genes through vitamin B12, proving that genetic susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes and associated intermediate traits like obesity and insulin resistance may be epigenetically regulated. In contrast to the global role of folate deficiency, he has established maternal B12 deficiency as a risk factor for neural tube defects in their children. These findings have immense translational value. As Director of CSIR-Sickle Cell Anaemia Mission, he is passionately involved in creating awareness and reducing the disease burden through population screening, prenatal diagnosis, and clinical, social and genetic counseling.
Professor Bushra Ateeq
Professor Bushra Ateeq has been awarded The Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award in Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for molecular characterization of prostate cancer with application in diagnostics and precision medicine, discovery of new drug targets and development of alternative therapeutic strategies for the treatment of advanced-stage and drug-resistant cancer.
Dr Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya
Dr Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya has been awarded The Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award in Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for his seminal contribution in establishing the role of a special class of small regulatory RNAs, the microRNAs, in varieties of cellular events and pathways in mammalian cells including the host-pathogen interaction and infection processes. Dr Bhattacharyya has investigated the mechanism of exchange of microRNAs between mammalian cells via the Extracellular Vesicles (EV) and has shown importance of EV-associated miRNA exchange in neurodegeneration, inflammation, and cancer. He has recently explored the EV-associated microRNAs as immunomodulators to regulate the infection process of the host cells by the invading pathogen Leishmania donovani, the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis. His research also promises development of microRNA and EV-based therapeutics against other deadly diseases.
Dr. Anurag Agrawal
Dr Anurag Agrawal has made several original contributions in the field of Respiratory Diseases. He is Director of the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and has led multifaceted research programs spanning respiratory physiology, molecular biology and data science. His group’s work led to new understanding of targeting mitochondria to prevent or treat lung diseases, as well as the discovery of mesenchymal stem cells as effective mitochondrial donors. He has directly contributed to novel physiological methods of measuring lung function, portable oscillometry devices for highly sensitive diagnosis of respiratory diseases, and digital health systems with artificial intelligence enabled workflows. His collaborative efforts have also been important in quantifying the magnitude of respiratory diseases burden in India and understanding its causes.
Professor Yamuna Krishnan
Professor Yamuna Krishnan has been awarded the Sun Pharma Award for Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for the development of DNA-based fluorescent reporters and quantitative imaging of the chemical composition of organelles in live cells from human patients and in genetic model organisms, with applications in precision medicine and disease biology
Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD
Dr. Ravi Salgia is a distinguished clinician-scientist who has dedicated his career to cancer care and research. As a scientist, his groundbreaking research into receptor tyrosine kinases and their role in thoracic cancers has paved the way for the development of innovative targeted therapies that have transformed treatment of the disease. As a clinician, he leads an active clinical practice and remains committed to ensuring the very best care for his patients. Dr. Salgia has been honored with numerous awards, including being named numerous times as one of the Top Doctors in America. He is a member of the editorial board for several top-tier journals, and has authored or coauthored >300 peerreviewed publications and book chapters. He is also the sole editor of two recently published books on targeted therapies and personalized medicine. Prior to City of Hope, Dr. Salgia was tenured professor and vice chair at University of Chicago School of Medicine. Dr. Salgia began his academic career as a faculty member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School following his postgraduate training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
Dr. P Sarat Chandra
Prof P Sarat Chandra has made several original contributions (>100) in the field of Epilepsy Surgery and Cranio-vertebral junction surgery. He is PI & Team leader for prestigious Center of Excellence for Epilepsy (COE) and Magnetoencephalography, the first of its kind for India. He contributed towards first RCT in a landmark study for Drug Resistant Epilepsy (DRE) for Children (NEJM, 2017) establishing 10-time superiority of Surgery compared to medical therapy. He has also developed minimally invasive endoscopic techniques for complex epilepsy surgeries (hemispherotomy & corpus callosotomies) which are now established as a standard across globe. His group at COE contributed several original papers to understand the connectivity and molecular basis of epilepsy. Through his vast experience in epilepsy surgery, he trained several neurosurgeons and established epilepsy surgery programs in several parts of the country and other countries (Indonesia, Morocco). Prof Chandra also made significant contribution in Spine specifically the fields of cranio-vertebral junction anomalies, vertebral haemangiomas through several original papers describing new, safer and affordable surgical techniques, and development of newer implants.
Professor M. Radhakrishna Pillai
Professor M. Radhakrishna Pillai has been awarded the Sun Pharma Award for Medical Sciences (Basic Research) for his work on cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV). Professor Pillai produced vast knowledge on the complex pathology of the virus to redefine the empirical approach to HPV infection. Recognizing this, World Health Organization supported Professor Pillai to alleviate the huge economic and social burden of 3-dose vaccine against HPV in Indian women. He rationally proved the efficacy of 2-dose of vaccine and also demonstrated that one dose of vaccine has significant potential to prevent infection. The prestigious Lancet Oncology journal wrote in a commentary "The study will make a longterm contribution to understanding the role of HPV vaccines in preventing infection and disease in countries with high burdens of cervical cancer and promises to lead the way in the assessment of one-dose HPV vaccination"
Dr. Usha Kant Misra
Prof Usha Kant Misra has made several original contributions in the field of CNS infection. In the field of Japanese encephalitis (JE) he, for the first time highlighted the diagnostic importance of thalamic lesions in MRI; flaccid weakness in JE was attributed to anterior horn cell involvement, the spectrum and basis of movement disorders in JE. In dengue infection two polar forms, encephalitis and muscle involvement with overlapping features has also been reported. Muscle involvement in dengue is due to edema, hemorrhage and altered vascular permeability which differs from that in scrub typhus which is due to vasculitis. His group has published over 15 investigators initiated randomized controlled trials which have impacted the treatment of status epilepticus, stroke, TB meningitis, intracerebral hemorrhage and migraine. He has pioneered the concept of low cost ICU and cost effective medicine. Based on his published work during 1999-2008 he was adjudged as the most prolific and impactful author amongst Neurologists and Neurosurgeons in India.
Dr. K. Thangaraj
Dr. K. Thangaraj has been selected for the Sun Pharma Research Award-2018 in the field of Medical Sciences - Basic Research. He has made significant contributions towards understanding the complex origin of Indian populations. His genetic studies, for the first time, provide evidence that the contemporary Indian populations descend from two divergent groups - Ancestral South Indians, and Ancestral North Indians - who have admixed during the past 2000 - 4000 years, and for the last 2000 years almost all populations have been practicing endogamy. Subsequently, he demonstrated that the practice of endogamy for the last two thousand years has led to high frequency of population-specific recessive disease in at least one-third of the Indian populations. Studies of Dr. Thangaraj paved a way for identification and screening for recessive variants that are prevalent in population with strong founder effects, which would be useful for community-based premarital genetic counseling and precision medicine.
Dr. Ashish Suri
Dr. Ashish Suri has been selected for the Sun Pharma Research Award-2016 in the field of Medical Sciences-Clinical Research. He has pioneered research in developing innovative techniques and treatment protocols for complex skull-base and brain tumor surgery; and high-end collaborative deliverable-based translational research and development in Neuro-Engineering in Neurosurgery Simulation. Landmark achievements include structured modular simulation-based neurosurgery skills curriculum with Pan-India and Indo-German collaboration; computerized evaluation of neurosurgery task-based skills; open-source, interactive skills-based 3D/stereoscopic e-learning platform; physical, hybrid and virtual simulators and innovative instrumentation.
Dr. Vikram Mathews
Dr. Vikram Mathews has been selected for the Sun Pharma Research Award-2016 in the field of Medical Sciences-Medical Research. He is a physician-scientist who is best known for his work in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) and the use of arsenic trioxide (ATO) in the treatment of this condition. The work done by his group was instrumental in moving this well tolerated agent as front line therapy in the management of APL. Over a series of publications all aspects of treatment of APL with regards to optimizing therapy, risk stratification, minimal residual disease monitoring, toxicity profile and cost analysis with specific attention to factors that are relevant to India and other low and minimal income countries have been addressed by this group. Dr. Vikram Mathews continues to work on mechanisms of drug resistance in acute leukemia with special interest in micro-environment mediated mechanisms of drug resistance and metabolic alterations and adaptations in leukemia.
Dr. Rajan Sankaranarayanan
Dr. Rajan Sankaranarayanan has been selected for the Sun Pharma Research Award-2016 in the field of Medical Sciences-Basic Research for his outstanding contributions in the area of protein biosynthesis by studying proofreading mechanisms using structural biology approaches. Notably, his work has uncovered how chirality-based checkpoints operate in excluding D-chiral amino acids from entering the translation machinery and has shown that the mechanism is conserved from bacteria to mammals. The work has implications for probing the role of such checkpoints in the neuronal context as some D-amino acids are well known neurotransmitters.
Dr. Virender S Sangwan, (MS)
Dr. Virender Singh Sangwan is being recognized for his pioneering and successful application of stem cell-based treatment, called cultivated limbal epithelial transplantation (CLET) of the damaged corneas of over 1000 people, repairing their corneas and restoring their vision in large measure, and also in developing an simpler version of this treatment (termed SLET or simple limbal epithelial transplantation), which can be practiced in situ, in vivo by any qualified corneal surgeon, without the need for a sophisticated stem cell culture laboratory. The SLET reduced the cost of surgery significantly and eliminated the need for expensive laboratory based cultivation.
Prof. Debabrata Dash
Prof. Debabrata Dash has been selected for the award in the field of Medical Sciences Medical Research. The contributions of Prof. Dash over past three decades have carved him a niche in areas of translational nanomedicine, platelet biology and thrombosis research. He is credited with design of a novel theranostic platform that combines traditional thrombolytic therapy (streptokinase) with state-of-the-art photothermal therapy (gold nanorods irradiated with near-infrared laser) for effective lysis of occlusive pathological thrombi with minimal bleeding complications. He has designed a sensitive impedance-based nano-biosensor to identify/screen individuals with high thrombotic risk and developed isoform of graphene towards safe biomedical applications. He asked the intriguing question "how platelets age?’ and unveiled the secret of platelet ageing with a series of incisive experiments. He identified Ubiquitin-Proteasome System and Sirtuin deacetylases as components of putative "Internal Timer" regulating platelet life span, which can be potential therapeutic targets against thrombocytopenia. Based on platelet model he validated RhoA-ROCK-MLC axis and fibrinogen as anti-Alzheimer therapeutic possibilities. Research of Prof. Dash is high on translational scale and recognized globally.
Prof. Subrata Sinha
Professor Subrata Sinha has been selected for the award in the field of Basic Research in Medical Sciences for his pioneering research on glioma biology, particularly in the area of functional genomics and the molecular basis of the tumour heterogeneity. His work provides an insight into why apparently similar tumours within the same histological grade may differ in terms of behaviour and therapeutic response. His initial work identified a molecular locus that segregates with high grade gliomas that show increased proliferation. Subsequently, he and his collaborators, have been able to identify markers of adverse phenotype, including poor survival, in high grade glioma. This work also identifies novel mediators of the hypoxic response, including the FAT1 gene, which links hypoxia and inflammation. His research shows how molecular differences between tumours of similar histology can be used to identify distinct subgroups and to develop targeted therapeutics, including the abrogation of hypoxia induced chemo-resistance.