M. Madan Babu is an Indian-American

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

and bioinformatician. He is the endowed chair in biological

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

and director of the center of excellence for data-driven discovery at

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, par ...

. Previously, he served as a programme leader at the

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(LMB).

Early life and education

Babu grew up in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He became interested in learning to program as a young child when his father brought home a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

. Babu was introduced to

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

as a high school student. He obtained his

Bachelor of Technology A Bachelor of Technology (Latin ''Baccalaureus Technologiae'', commonly abbreviated as B.Tech. or BTech; with honours as B.Tech. (Hons.)) is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after the completion of a three to five-year program of studi ...

degree from Anna University, where he was introduced to the field of

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

. Babu obtained his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in computational genomics at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

supervised by

Sarah Teichmann Sarah Amalia Teichmann (born 1975) is a German scientist who is head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of resear ...

in 2004.

Career and research

After his PhD, Babu was a postdoctoral researcher at the

National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The ...

(NCBI), at the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1 ...

(NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland with

Aravind L. Iyer Aravind L. Iyer is an evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. Since 2002, he has been Principal Investigator of the Computational Biology Branch. In his research publication ...

. In 2006, he became a group leader at the

in Cambridge, UK. In July 2020, Babu joined the faculty of

as the endowed chair in biological

in the structural biology department and director of the center of excellence for data-driven discovery. Babu's research focuses on understanding the regulation of cellular systems at varying scales, including molecular, system, and genomic levels. He also studies the effects of such regulation on

genome evolution Genome evolution is the process by which a genome changes in structure (sequence) or size over time. The study of genome evolution involves multiple fields such as structural analysis of the genome, the study of genomic parasites, gene and ancient ...

. In particular, his research group studies

G protein-coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...

s and intrinsically disordered proteins using a combination of

and experimental biology approaches. Babu serves as

chief editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the journal ''

Molecular Systems Biology ''Molecular Systems Biology'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering systems biology at the molecular level (examples include: genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbial systems, the integration of cell signaling and r ...

''.

Awards and honours

*2009: EMBO young investigator, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) *2010: Won the Early Career Research Award from the

Biochemical Society The Biochemical Society is a learned society in the United Kingdom in the field of biochemistry, including all the cellular and molecular biosciences. Structure It currently has around 7000 members, two-thirds in the UK. It is affiliated with th ...

*2011: Awarded the Balfour Lecture by the Genetics Society *2011: Won the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

Molecular BioSystems Award * 2014: Awarded the Colworth Medal by the

*2014: Awarded the research prize by the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine *2014: Won the Protein Society Protein Science Young Investigator Award *2015: Awarded the Francis

Crick Lecture The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society established in 2003 with an endowment from Sydney Brenner, the late Francis Crick's close friend and former colleague. It is delivered annually in biology, particularly the ...

by the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

*2016: Elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization *2017: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) * 2018: Won the

Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists was established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Leonard Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник), chairman of Access Indust ...

from the New York Academy of Sciences * 2018: Won the ISCB Innovator Award from the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) * 2019: Won the

EMBO Gold Medal The EMBO Gold Medal is an annual award of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) given to young scientists for outstanding contributions to the life sciences in Europe. Laureates receive a medal and €10,000 and are invited to rec ...

*2021: Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences *2023: Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babu, M. Madan Computational biologists Indian bioinformaticians Living people Academics of the University of Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Year of birth missing (living people) People from Chennai Anna University alumni Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of the Royal Society