Dorairajan Balasubramanian | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1939-08-28)28 August 1939 (age 86) Tamil Nadu, India |
| Alma mater | BITS, Pilani |
| Occupation | Biophysical chemist |
| Years active | since 1965 |
| Known for | Ocularbiochemistry |
| Spouse | Shakti |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Padma Shri National Order of Merit (France) |
| Website | Profile on Academy of Sciences Leopoldina |
Dorairajan Balasubramanian, popularly known asProfessor Balu, is an Indian biophysical chemist[1] andocularbiochemist.[2][3][4][5] He is a former President ofIndian Academy of Sciences[6] and a director of research at the Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre ofL. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad.[7][8][9] A recipient of theNational Order of Merit (France), Balasubramanian was honored by theGovernment of India, in 2002, with the fourth highestIndian civilian award ofPadma Shri.[10]
Dorairajan Balasubramanian was born on 28 August 1939[8] in the South Indian state ofTamil Nadu.[3][4] He graduated in Chemistry (BSc) fromMadras University in 1957 and secured his master's degree (MSc) in Chemistry with first rank[11] in 1959 fromBITS, Pilani.[2][3][4][5] He moved to the United States in 1960 for researching for his doctoral studies and completed it in 1965 to obtain PhD[5] in biophysical chemistry fromColumbia University.[2][3][4][8] He continued in the United States for his post doctoral research as aJane Coffin Childs Fund Fellow at theUniversity of Minnesota Medical School till 1966.[2][3][4][5][8]
Balasubramanian returned to India in 1966 and joined theIndian Institute of Technology, Kanpur[3][5] as a lecturer where he rose in ranks over the years to become an assistant professor and a professor.[2][4][8] In 1977, he was appointed as the professor and dean of the School of Chemistry at theUniversity of Hyderabad[5][9] where he worked till 1982[8] when he took up the post of the deputy director of theCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.[2][3][8] He retired from the institution as its director[5] in 1998 and moved toL. V. Prasad Eye Institute where he is the director of research of Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre.[2][3][4][5][8][9] He also serves as the visiting professor at theUniversity of New South Wales, Sydney and as the adjunct professor ofBirla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India.[2][3][4]
Balasubramanian is married to Shakti who is associated withETV as a producer and the couple has two daughters.[3][4] The elder daughter, Katyayani is a research analyst and the younger one, Akhila works as a public health professional.[3][4] The family lives in Hyderabad.[3][5]
Balasubramanian is a visiting scientist at theNational Eye Institute,Bethesda and is a senior Fellow of ophthalmology at theUniversity of Melbourne.[2] He is the chairman of theTask Force on Stem Cell Research set up by theDepartment of Biotechnology of theGovernment of India.[5] He is a former president of theIndian Academy of Sciences (2007-2010)[4][8] and is the incumbent the chairman of the Biotechnology Advisory Council of theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh.[3] A former secretary general ofThe World Academy of Sciences,[3][4] he has served as the project coordinator ofTranslational Centre in Eye Diseases ofChampalimaud Foundation (C-TRACER) and theAffordable Healthcare Project of theWellcome Trust for finding solutions for theuse of scaffolds for cultivating stem cells.[8] He is a former member of theInternational Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies,[12] theInternational Basic Sciences Panel[13] ofUNESCO and theInternational Chapter Affiliate Committee of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO),[14] United States.[8] He has also served as an editorial board member of several international journals.[4][5] He had also been appointed as one of the honorary advisory committee members for the International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB'19) by the School of Biological Sciences ofMadurai Kamaraj University.[15]
Balasubramanian started his research activities in 1965 focusing on the structure and functions of proteins andpolypeptides[16] and worked on the thermodynamic analysis of their stability.[1][5][8] The focus of his research changed in 1984/85 when he started to work on ocular science and concentrated oncrystallins of eye lens and their function as an agent in keeping the lens transparent.[17] His research revealed howcataract is caused when crystallins are damaged photochemically, thereby leading to diminished lenticular transparency.[1] He argued that the oxidative stress on the lens inducescovalent chemical changes in the constituent molecules[3] and these changes lead to cataract.[1][4][5][8] He researched further on the subject to find out that, by supplementingantioxidants and cytoprotective substances, the progression of cataract can be slowed down.[4] These findings are known to have introduced aprophylactic approach to addressing the issue of cataract, which is reported to be the causal factor for 47.9 percent[18] of the blindness in the world.[1] Further, he attempted to identify the cataractostatic agents and proposed the benefits of teapolyphenols,[19]Ginko Biloba[20] andWithania somnifera extracts.[21] These substances contained antioxidants and cytoprotective compounds which slow down the progression ofoxidative cataract and this was verified during experiments in animals.[1]
After the turn of the century, Balasubramanian and his colleagues started working on inherited eye diseases[8] and theirmolecular genetics.[4] The group carried out research on diseases such ascongenital glaucoma[5][22] with a sampling set of over 400 families and this has helped in revealing 15 mutations in thegene CYP1B1, with mutation R368H being the most common one.[4][22] The research has also recorded thegenotype–phenotype correlations and the structural changes occur in mutated protein[4][22] and these findings have assisted in clinical prediction of the disease and in early therapeutic intervention to avert blindness.[1]
Balasubramanian is now working onstem cell biology and its use in restoring lost vision.[23] He and his group have been successful in isolating the adult stem cells found in thelimbus, around thecornea, and culturing them on humanamniotic membrane.[8] These cultured stem cells were, later, used to producecorneal epithelia that can be stitched on to human eye. Clinical tests on 200 patients who lost eyesight due to chemical or fire burns returned significantly good results with vision restoration to 20/20 levels,[4] with or without subsequentcorneal grafts or transplantation.[1] These tests are reported to be thelargest successful human trial of adult stem cell therapy in the world.[1][4]
Balasubramanian has published 6 books[3] of which two books,[3] one on chemistry and the other inbiotechnology, are prescribed text books for academic studies.[1][4][24] He is credited with over 450 articles,[3][4] published in peer reviewed national and international journals[2][25] andMicrosoft Academic Search, an online repository of scientific articles, has listed 52 of them.[26] He has presented more than 170 scientific papers[1][3][4][5] and has contributed in popularizing science by writing columns in leading newspapers such asThe Hindu andThe Times of India since 1980.[3][4][24][27] On the academic front, he has assisted 16 doctoral students in their PhD studies.[5] His efforts are also reported behind the establishment of a vaccine unit at theCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and in designing a quality improvement program for theSericulture Laboratory of the state government.[4]
Dorairajan Balasubramanian, an honorary Professor of theJawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, is an elected member ofIndian National Science Academy (INSA),Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS),National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI),Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.[2][3][5][8][11] He is also a Fellow of theAcademy of Sciences Leopoldina,[8] Germany, Mauritian Academy of Sciences[8] and the International Molecular Biology Network.[11]
He has delivered many award lectures in India and abroad. In 1985, he delivered the National Lecture of theUniversity Grants Commission and the next year, the Prof. K. Venkataraman Endowment Lecture.[11] K. S. G. Doss Memorial Lecture and the SERC National Lecture were delivered in 1991 followed by Pasteur Centenary Lecture, R. P. Mitra Memorial Lecture and the Platinum Jubilee Lecture of theIndian Science Congress Association in 1995. Some of the other award lectures given by Balasubramanian are:[11]
Balasubramanian received his first award, the Rev. Fr. L. M. Yeddanapalli Memorial Award and Medal of theIndian Chemical Society in 1977.[11] In 1981, he was awarded theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in chemical science by theCouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research.[11] The year 1983 brought him three awards, the SBCI Sarma Memorial Award,FICCI Award and theICMR M. O. T. Iyengar Award.[11] He received the Ranbaxy Award in 1990,[2] the Fukui Award of the National Foundation for Eye Research, United States, in 1991 and Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar Prize from theIndian Association for the Cultivation of Science in 1994.[11]
TheThird World Academy of Science honoured Balasubramanian with theTWAS Prize in 1995[4] andIranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) conferred theKhwarizmi Award of Iran on him in 1996.[2][5][11] He received theOm Prakash Bhasin Award and theKalinga Prize in 1997[2][4][5][28] and the next year, he received Goyal Prize of the Goyal Research Foundation[2] and J. C. Bose Medal of theIndian National Science Academy (INSA).[5][11] TheGovernment of India honoured him with the civilian award ofPadma Shri in 2002.[2][4][5] TheGovernment of France followed suit with theChevalier de l’Ordre National de Merite, the same year.[2][4][5] He received a third award in 2002 from theDepartment of Science and Technology, the National Prize for Science Popularization.[5][11] He is also a recipient of theINSA Indira Gandhi Prize[5][11] and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Award for Achievement in Science of theIndian Science Congress Association (ISCA).[2]
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