Prof Samir K Brahmachari, Dr MRS Rao Jointly Win Bio-medical Research Award

Prof. Samir K Brahmachari and Dr. MRS Rao will be jointly awarded the Dr B R Ambedkar Centenary Award for the year 2005 for their outstanding contribution in the field of bio-medical research.

The award carries a cash prize of rupees one lakh.

Besides, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has selected 31 biomedical scientists from across the country to be honoured for their outstanding contributions in research work for 2004-2005.

The awards will be presented by Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss later this week.

Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology Director Dr. Brahmachari is renowned for his contribution in molecular genetics of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

He had made fundamental discoveries in the areas of genomics that led others to develop approaches for cancer therapeutics.

His most significant contribution is in the identification of three novel genes of SARS virus.

Dr. Rao, President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research at Bangalore, has used several ingenious and novel methods to identify mammalian recombination hotspots in mouse and humans.

He is a co-discoverer of the gene involved in a particular type of colon cancer and is credited to have initiated genomic approaches towards understanding various biological processes in both normal and diseased conditions.

The biennial Ambedkar Centenary Award was instituted in 1991-92 by the ICMR as part of the birth centenary celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar.

Source-ANI
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