Govindarajan Padmanaban

Govindarajan Padmanaban
Born (1938-03-20) 20 March 1938
Madras, India
Residence India
Nationality Indian
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions Indian Institute of Science
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
University of Chicago
Alma mater Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
Indian Agricultural Research Institute,New Delhi
Presidency College, Chennai
Doctoral advisor P. S. Sarma
Notable awards Padma Bhushan (2003)
Padma Shri (1991)
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1983)

Govindarajan Padmanaban (born 20 March 1938, in Madras) is an Indian biochemist and biotechnologist. He was the former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and presently serves as honorary professor in the department of biochemistry at IISc.

Early life and education

Padmanaban was brought up in a family of engineers. His belongs to Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu but had settled in Bangalore. After completing his schooling in Bangalore, he joined an Engineering College. However, he found engineering uninteresting, and he joined the Presidency College in Madras to complete a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He completed his masters in Soil Chemistry at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Indian Institute of science IISc, Bangalore in 1966.[1]

Research

In the early years of his research, he primarily worked in the transcriptional regulation of Eukaryotic genes in the liver. He was interested in elucidating the multifaceted role of heme in cellular processes. His group discovered the heme-biosynthetic pathway in the malarial parasite and showed it to be a drug target. He has also been interested in the area of vaccine development. His team was successful in showing the antimalarial property of Curcumin and its efficacy in combination therapy in 2004.[2]

Awards

References

  1. Diamond, Bruce (2003). "Profile: Govindarajan Padmanaban". Nature Medicine. 9 (8): 985. doi:10.1038/nm0803-985. PMID 12894150.
  2. Reddy, Raju C.; Vatsala, Palakkodu G.; Keshamouni, Venkateshwar G.; Padmanaban, Govindarajan; Rangarajan, Pundi N. (2005). "Curcumin for malaria therapy". Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 326 (2): 472–4. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.11.051. PMID 15582601.
  3. 1 2 "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  4. "List of Fellows NAMS" (PDF). National Academy of Medical Sciences. 2016. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
Academic offices
Preceded by
C. N. R. Rao
Director, Indian Institute of Science
1994–1998
Succeeded by
Govardhan Mehta
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