Indian Institute of Science’s Prof. V Nagaraja has bagged the Ranbaxy Research Award for the year 2002 in recognition of his outstanding original research contributions in the field of medical and pharmaceutical sciences.

IISc has recommended Prof. Nagaraja’s name because he has been working on Mycobacterium in tuberculosis for the last 15 years.

He has been studying the important pathways and the basic enzyme machinery of DNA gyrase and Topoisommarase. “Key discoveries have been found which has the potential for further exploration of developing a key molecule,” informed Prof. Nagaraja.

The basic research has resulted in certain clues and it is for the industry to take on further, Prof. Nagaraja said.

Ranbaxy Science Foundation announced the Ranbaxy Research Awards for the year 2002 recently which is in recognition for the outstanding original research contributions in the field of medical and pharmaceutical sciences. Under the Pharmaceutical Sciences segment, the award is shared between Dr. Ramesh Panchagnula, professor, department of pharmaceutics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Punjab. They will receive a citation, a trophy and a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh.

Incidentally, Prof. Nagaraja is co-ordinating for the Lupin Limited tie-up with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the research of a gene-based potential drug for the treatment of mycobacterium tuberculosis which involves two more leading research institutions apart from IISc which includes National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune and the Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.