BioSpectrum met Prof. G Padman    abhan, Honarary Professor, Indian Institute of Science and an Emeritus Scientist soon after he was chosen as the winner of the institution's first distinguished Biotechnologist Award.

I am excited when the premier research center, Indian Institute of Science, announced my name for the first Distinguished Biotechnologist award. Not because I got the award but it has motivated me to work for five more years. This March I completed 65. Definitely the award has helped me to continue my research activities which I always love to do.

My areas of interests are in developing new drug targets for malaria and alternative molecular strategies. As malaria is a poor man's disease, we hardly find investments from the private sector and multinationals. Only we can get funds from the government. For drug discovery the firms have to spend around $500 million and they have to wait for nearly 10-12 years to complete all the formalities for commercialization and to recover the costs. I feel this won't do for the pharmaceutical companies. Besides developing new drugs, I am working on how to make the new drugs viable/cheaper for the commoner.

For tuberculosis we have drugs in the market. From them we found out that three drugs also work as anti-malarial drugs. A combination of three anti-tuberculosis drugs was used for our trails on mice. The results are 100 percent positive. We are now working on the next phase of clinical trials. Discussions are on with pharmaceutical companies. We have to wait and watch.

I am also supporting my colleague Dr. PN Rangarajan, who has developed a DNA vaccine for rabies. For a developing country like India, DNA vaccines are very relevant.In addition to research, I am in the scientific advisory board of many firms like X Cyton Diagnostics, Bhat Biotech and Dabur Research Foundation. My role as chairman in BRPC an apex body at the department of biotechnology, will always keeps me busy.

as told to Narayan Kulkarni

Strand appoints Todd as senior VP
Strand Genomics Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, appointed Todd Laird as the senior vice president of business development. He has 20 years of experience in international sales and business development spanning the life science, software, and high-technology manufacturing industries. Todd will be operating from Strand's new branch in the USA in Redwood City, California. Earlier Todd was VP of business development at GeneticXchange, where he was responsible for developing OEM and channel relationships with instrumentation, application software, and system integration partners.

Paresh Verma quits Proagro
BioSpectrum learns that Proagro's director (research) Paresh Verma has quit. The uncertainty over the government clearnace to the company's GM mustard seed has apparently prompted the move. He is learnt to have joined another Delhi based bioagriculture firm.

Ketan to head Intel India operations
Ketan R Sampat, has been appointed president, Intel India based in Bangalore. Intel Corporation has announced the expansion of Intel's management team in India in recognition of the growing importance of the country as a global design and development center. Intel has been focusing on Life Sciences as a major growth area for its solutions.