The Andhra Pradesh Government has been using the BioAsia events as a platform to recognise and acknowledge the outstanding efforts of distinguished scientists in the life sciences sector by honouring them with 'Genome Valley Excellence Awards'. This year, Prof Rama Reddy V Guntaka, Department of Molecular Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Centre, Memphis will be conferred the award for his contribution to the field of biotechnology.

Guntaka's research with fellow scientists D Stehelin, HE Varmus and JM Bishop resulted in the discovery of protooncogenes for which Bishop and Varmus won Nobel Prize in 1989.

He worked in the laboratories of two Hyderabad-based biotech companies-Shantha Biotechnics and Sudershan Biotech. He succeeded in cloning the whole molecule and sequenced the genome of the hepatitis C virus, mapping its 9,500 nuceotides. He is the first to molecularly clone the entire genome of Rous Sarcoma Virus which is being used all over the world as a prototype virus for understanding cancer.

Guntaka was also behind the successful development of Shantha Biotech's recombinant hepatitis B vaccine (Shanvac) and the hepatitis C vaccine (Shanferon). He is guiding scientists at Sudershan Biotech to produce antigens to detect the hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficienct virus (HIV) infections.