Raghavan Varadarajan (born 27 November 1960) is an Indian biophysicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his researches in the fields of protein structure and

protein folding Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein chain is translated to its native three-dimensional structure, typically a "folded" conformation by which the protein becomes biologically functional. Via an expeditious and reproduci ...

and his contributions in developing vaccines and drugs for treating a type of fatal

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

and HIV-1. He is a former J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2002, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Born on 27 November 1960, Raghavan Varadarajan completed his graduate and master's degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1982 and moved to the US for his doctoral studies at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

under the guidance of Steven G. Boxer to secure a PhD. His post-doctoral studies were at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

at the laboratory of

Frederic M. Richards Frederic Middlebrook Richards (August 19, 1925 – January 11, 2009), commonly referred to as Fred Richards, was an American biochemist and biophysicist known for solving the pioneering crystal structure of the ribonuclease S enzyme in 1967 an ...

during 1988–92 and he returned to India to start his academic career at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1992. Holding the position of a professor of Molecular Biophysics Unit, he heads ''The Varadarajan Laboratory'' of IISc which has research interests in the design of HIV-1 and

immunogens. He also serves as an honorary professor at

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a multidisciplinary research institute located at Jakkur, Bangalore, India. It was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, to ...

and as the chairman of the scientific board of ''Theramyt Novobiologics'', a

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

-based research platform (which he helped found), engaged in the development of

biological drug A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, th ...

Legacy

Varadarajan's early researches were focused on the interaction of protein molecules and their sequential properties. At Steven G. Boxer's laboratory, he worked on human

myoglobin Myoglobin (symbol Mb or MB) is an iron- and oxygen-binding protein found in the cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue of vertebrates in general and in almost all mammals. Myoglobin is distantly related to hemoglobin. Compared to hemoglobin, myoglobi ...

, a

hemeprotein A hemeprotein (or haemprotein; also hemoprotein or haemoprotein), or heme protein, is a protein that contains a heme prosthetic group. They are a very large class of metalloproteins. The heme group confers functionality, which can include oxygen ...

, and studied its dielectric properties as well as the ''redox potential/spectral properties of bound chromophores''. Later, during his post-doctoral days at Yale, he researched on the ''structural and thermodynamic changes associated with cavity formation in proteins''. Continuing his researches at IISc, he is known to have developed a new

crystallographic Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The word ...

and Nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen exchange protocol for the characterization of disordered states of proteins and his studies helped in the estimation of the ''hydrophobic driving force in protein folding''. Collaborating with Merck Research Laboratories on behalf of

, his team developed a number of immunogens which have been demonstrated to have positive effect as HIV-1 vaccines and he holds the patent for the invention. Merck have tested the a few vaccines and some of the other proposals are being tested by

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conduct ...

. Varadarajan has published his research findings by way of several articles and his publications have been listed in a number of online article repositories. He served as an investigator of the ''DBT-IAVI Programme'' jointly organized by the Department of Biotechnology and

for the development of HIV vaccines. He has also mentored a number of scholars in their doctoral researches and has conducted seminars on his researches.

Awards and honors

Varadarajan received the B. M. Birla Science Award of the B. M. Birla Science Centre in 1998 for his contributions to the study of protein structure and foldings and the

(CSIR) awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2002. In 2013, CSIR honored him again with the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences and Technology. He received a number of research fellowships which included the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship for Biological Sciences of the Department of Science and Technology and AIDS-Innovation Grant Award of the

National Institutes 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 ...

( both in 1999), Senior Research Fellowship of Wellcome Trust (2000) and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology (2007–12). He is also an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Selected bibliography

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Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varadarajan, Raghavan Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1960 births IIT Kanpur alumni Stanford University alumni Yale University alumni Indian biophysicists 20th-century Indian inventors Indian scientific authors Living people Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Indian biologists 21st-century Indian inventors