The Infosys Prize 2019 in Life Sciences is awarded to Dr. Manjula Reddy for her groundbreaking discoveries concerning the structure of cell walls in bacteria. Through elegant genetic and biochemical analyses, Dr. Reddy and her colleagues have revealed critical steps of cell wall growth that are not only fundamental for understanding bacterial biology but also have important implications for developing new classes of antibiotics.

Dr. Reddy and her colleagues have elucidated key steps in how bacterial cells physically grow. Why does this matter? A single cell of a bacterial pathogen can grow in a food-filled environment and at normal human body temperature in as little as 20 minutes, by remodeling its membrane and cell wall. Despite over 100 years of research into bacteria, how a single cell achieves this rapid body-remodeling is not fully understood. Dr. Reddy’s work has provided critical new insights.

Congratulating her Jury ChairMriganka Sur, said, “I congratulate Dr. Manjula Reddy for being the winner of the 2019 Infosys Prize in Life Sciences. Your work on the development and growth of cell wall in bacteria has transformed the field. Your elegant experiments describing the first stages of cell growth are likely to lead to new antibiotics and address the growing concern about antibiotic resistant bacteria. On behalf of the jury for Life Sciences I warmly congratulate you on being this year's award winner.”

Dr Manjula Reddy’s elegant experiments describing the first stages of cell growth are likely to lead to new antibiotics.