The coveted Ranbaxy Research Awards in the field of medical sciences were given to Dr Amit Sharma, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi for his pioneering work in understanding the function of malaria parasite proteins.

Dr Balram Bhargava, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi was awarded for his work on developing the indigenous low cost platinum iridium coronary stent; Dr Gagandeep Kang, Christian Medical College, Vellore for his comprehensive research on diarrhoeal disease that led to important advances in Indian public health and Dr V Mohan, Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Center, Chennai for his research work on pancreatic diabetes that led to the development of "Mohan's criteria".

In the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the sole award was given to Dr Santanu Bhattacharya, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for his work promoting gene therapy.

The Science Scholar Awards, given to upcoming new generation of scientists in the Biomedical Sciences category went to Mr Anuj Kumar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for his research work in understanding hepatitis C virus replication and Mr Bidyut Purkait, Department of Molecular Biology, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) (ICMR) Patna for designing better chemotherapeutic options for kala-azar.

In the Pharmaceutical Sciences category, the awardees were Ms Preshita P Desai, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai for the development and scale up optimization of curcumin solid solution; Ms Jasmine Kaur, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab for the development of a diagnostic agent called Aptamer used both for detecting cancer and delivering pharmaceutical substances specifically to cancerous cells and Mr Bhushan Munjal, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPER), Punjab for his work on lyophilization used to preserve perishable material and make them convenient for transport.

The awards were presented by internationally acclaimed scientist, Prof. Rudi Balling, director, Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg in presence of Dr Tsutomu Une, chairman, Ranbaxy, Dr Nitya Anand, chairman of RSF, Mr Arun Sawhney, chief executive officer and MD, Ranbaxy and Dr Rajinder K Jalali, member, Governing Council, RSF.

Preceding the award ceremony, Ranbaxy Science Foundation also held its 21st Annual Symposium on "Neurodegeneration" which saw participation of Mr TS Rao, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; Mr Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, Policy Center for Biomedical Research, Translational Health Science & Technology Institute; Ms MV Padma Srivastava, All India Institute of Medical Sciences; Mr Subrata Sinha, National Brain Research Center and Mr PN Tandon, National Brain Research Center amongst others. The keynote speaker, Prof. Balling delivered a special lecture at the symposium on neurodegenerative diseases.