Ramakrishnan Nagaraj (born 1953) is an Indian biochemist, molecular biologist and the leader of a team of scientists working in the field of

peptide Peptides (, ) are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides. ...

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). He is known for his studies on

hemolytic Hemolysis or haemolysis (), also known by several other names, is the rupturing (lysis) of red blood cells (erythrocytes) and the release of their contents (cytoplasm) into surrounding fluid (e.g. blood plasma). Hemolysis may occur in vivo o ...

and antibacterial properties in synthetic analogs of

bacterial toxins Microbial toxins are toxins produced by micro-organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, dinoflagellates, and viruses. Many microbial toxins promote infection and disease by directly damaging host tissues and by disabling the immune system. ...

. He is a J. C. Bose National fellow of the Department of Science and Technology at CCMB and an elected fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

and the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Acade ...

. 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 ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Nagaraj the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 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 or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1994, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Born on 10 February 1953, Ramakrishnan Nagaraj graduated in science from the

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

and completed his master's degree at the

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top rank ...

before doing his doctoral research at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

under the guidance of

Padmanabhan Balaram Padmanabhan Balaram is an Indian biochemist and a former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He is a recipient of the third highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Bhushan (2014) as well as the TWAS Prize (1994). ...

, a noted biochemist and

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

laureate. Nagaraj joined the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in 1980 as a scientist where he heads a team of scientists and pursues his researches on ''structure-function correlations in peptide antibiotics''. He has done considerable work on

signal peptides A signal peptide (sometimes referred to as signal sequence, targeting signal, localization signal, localization sequence, transit peptide, leader sequence or leader peptide) is a short peptide (usually 16-30 amino acids long) present at the N-te ...

and peptide antibiotics and their structure-function relationships. Nagaraj is known to have suggested a protocol by which

and antibacterial properties of the ''synthetic analogs of

'' could be separated, an invention which is reported to be of assistance in designing antibiotic peptides. His researches have been documented in several articles;

PubMed PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintain t ...

, an online repository of medical articles, has listed 273 of them.

Awards and honors

The

awarded Nagaraj the Young Scientists Medal in 1981 and he held the Young Associateship of the

from 1985 to 1988. He received the Young Scientist Award of the

(CSIR) in 1988; CSIR would honor him again in 1994 with 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 or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1994. A Homi Bhabha Fellow of 1991, Nagaraj is also a recipient of the 1995 P. B. Rama Rao Award of the Society for Biological Chemists, India and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (1998), Indian Academy of Sciences (1992) and the

Selected bibliography

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagaraj, Ramakrishnan Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1953 births Indian biochemists Indian molecular biologists Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy University of Mumbai alumni IIT Bombay alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni Living people 20th-century Indian biologists Scientists from Andhra Pradesh

Biography

Awards and honors

Selected bibliography

See also

References