Dr. Kaustuv Sanyal
JC Bose National Fellow
Professor and Chair
Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research
Bangalore, India.
Twitter : Kaustuv Sanyal (@KaustuvSanyal)
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.