CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)’s Dr. Rajan Sankaranarayanan, a structural biologist studying structures of proteins in cells and how accuracy is maintained by cellular machinery while building proteins across evolution, has won the prestigious Infosys Prize 2020 for the life sciences category announced on Wednesday night.
“15 years back, when I proposed the question, people thought the question was non-existent. From then to now winning this prize, I feel having come a long way – thanks to all the support from family and colleagues,” said Dr. Sankaranarayanan
Director Dr. Rakesh Mishra said, “Dr. Sankaranarayanan is an extremely rigorous scientist, and is highly celebrated among his peers in India as well as internationally. All of us in the CCMB community are delighted at him winning the Infosys Prize this year.”
Proteins are made of amino acids which are present in our bodies in two forms – D and L forms, each a mirror image of the other. However, if D amino acids are incorporated in proteins being built, it can lead to many deleterious effects. The CCMB scientist has found mechanistic details of how such a fundamental process runs in our cells avoiding many possible errors.
It is the second Infosys prize for CCMB in life sciences in a row and in all it won three. Dr. Manjula Reddy won this prize last year in 2019 and Dr. Imran Siddiqui won it in 2011. A purse of US$ 1 lakh, citation and gold medal is given to the chosen one, a press release said.
