Five scientists have been selected for the Tata Innovation Fellowships, which is a competitive scheme instituted by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, to  recognize  and  reward  scientists  with  outstanding  track  record  in  biological sciences.

The Awardees for 2018-19 scheme include:

Dr Samit Kumar Nandi, Professor  and  Head  of  the  Department,Department  of  Veterinary Surgery and  Radiology,West  Bengal  University  of  Animal  and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata-700037

Dr Nandi is an Indian veterinary surgeon, radiologist and a professor and is known for use of biomaterials in animal orthopedic surgeries. DBT also awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2008.

 

Dr Sriram Padmanabhan, Professor, Trans  Disciplinary University, Bengaluru-560064, Karnataka

Dr Padmanabhan is known to have designed and developed the first recombinant protein drug rhGCSF launched in India and also several other protein products. He holds several global patents in areas of recombinant protein expression and purification processes, novel bacterial vectors, novel bacteriophage and phage derived antibacterials and vaccines.

 

Dr Ranjan Sen, Staff Scientist VII, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Inner Ring Road,Uppal, Hyderabad-5000394. Dr Sen’s Laboratory of transcription is engaged in understanding the mechanism of transcription termination and antitermination in prokaryotes. A wide range of techniques from biophysics (spectroscopy, thermodynamics, fast kinetics etc.), biochemistry (protein purification, chemical and enzymatic foot-printing of protein and nucleic acids, cross-linking etc.), molecular biology (recombinant DNA techniques, site-directed mutagenesis), bacterial genetics and genomics are used in the laboratory to solve these intellectually challenging problems.

 

Dr Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Principal  Scientist, Pharmaceutics  and  PharmacokineticsDivision, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow-226031

Dr Mishra’s research interest includes nanomaterial based targeted delivery to tissue of interest especially for infectious diseases and endocrine disorders. His lab is involved in development of layer-by-layer technology, Nanocrystal Technology, Solid lipid nanoparticles and Ligand/receptor based targeting. In the last 10 years the work has been carried out focusing on the development novel delivery systems with a strategy for cost-saving, patient-friendly and evidence-based products for industry for patients suffering from osteoporosis, leishmaniasis and Malaria.

 

Dr Mukesh Jain, Associate Professor, School of Computational & Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi 110067

Dr Jain’s research interests include understanding the chromatin dynamics, and transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of abiotic stress responses and seed development using advanced state-of-art technologies. His group is using multidisciplinary omics and systems approaches to understand these processes.

The  scheme  is  aimed  at  rewarding  interdisciplinary  work  where  major  emphasis  is  on innovation and translational research with a potential towards commercialization. The fellowship is open to Indian Nationals residing in India who are below the age of 55 years as on December 31, 2018.  The fellowship  is  co-terminus  with  the superannuation of fellow in his/her organization.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, has announced the list of 2018-19 Awardees for Tata Innovation Fellowship.