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Kanury Rao
'' also known as Kanury Venkata Subba Rao (born 1958) is an Indian immunologist. He was the head of the Drug Discovery Research Centre (DDRC) at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) Faridabad..He is known for his studies in the fields of peptide synthesis and

cell signaling In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...

and the design of synthetic

peptide vaccines 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. A ...

. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences,

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. and a recipient of several awards including the Millennium Plaque of Honour of the Indian Science Congress and the

National Bioscience Award for Career Development The National Bio-science Award for Career Development or N-BIOS Prize is an Indian science award for recognizing excellence and promoting research in bio-sciences disciplines. It was instituted in 1999 by the Department of Biotechnology of the Gov ...

. 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 ...

awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, in 1997, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Born on 27 September 1958 in the Indian state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, K. V. Subba Rao graduated in science from the

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

and before starting his career by joining Malti-Chem Research Centre, Baroda, he secured his master's degree also from the same university in 1979. Subsequently, he did his doctoral studies under Sukhdev at

Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of ...

and moved to Johns Hopkins University in 1983 for his post-doctoral studies at their Division of Environmental Chemistry where he worked with Miles R. Chedekel. After working for two years there, he joined the laboratory of Fred C. Fox at the University of California and worked there for three more years. Returning to India in 1988, he joined the

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) was established as a project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 1983. The Organisation has three Component laboratories with over 45 ongo ...

where he held different positions as that of a research scientist (1988–91) and research assistant (1991–94) and was the Group Leader of the ''Immunology Group'' (1994-2015).

Legacy

During his post-doctoral days in the US, Rao's researches were focused on the synthesis of melanin pigments as well as on the

carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesodermal ...

cells of human breast and the cross-talk between growth factor and steroid receptors. The group led by him is credited with the discovery of a novel subset of IgD receptors on 'naive' B lymphocytes which helped in a wider understanding of ''antigen-specific B cell selection and amplification''. Later, furthering his earlier researches, he worked on designing new synthetic peptide vaccines for Hepatitis B which were reported to generate high immunogenicity in humans. He is also known to have contributed in the pathogenesis of

Mycobacterium tuberculosis ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (M. tb) is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, ''M. tuberculosis'' has an unusual, waxy coating on its c ...

and in the diagnostics of HIV/AIDS. It was during his period with

Virander Singh Chauhan Virander Singh Chauhan is an Indian scientist and a Rhodes Scholar working in the fields of genetic engineering and biotechnology and known for his contributions to the development of a recombinant vaccine for malaria. He was honored by the Govern ...

and Ranjan Kumar Nanda at ICGEB, the group developed an ''electronic nose'', a urine test, to monitor the progress of

tuberculosis therapy Tuberculosis management describes the techniques and procedures utilized for treating tuberculosis (TB). The medical standard for active TB is a short course treatment involving a combination of isoniazid, rifampicin (also known as Rifampin), py ...

. His current assignments are on the study of plasticity controlling mechanisms in receptor-initiated signaling pathways based on the systems level analysis of the antigen receptor-dependent signal transduction network. His research findings have been published as a number of articles; . He chaired U-EXCEL 2012, a task force of the

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

, for the North-eastern region of India and is a member of the Science and Engineering Research Board of the

Department of Science and Technology Department of Science and Technology may refer to: *Department of Science and Technology (Australia), an Australian Government department between November 1980 and December 1984 * Department of Science and Technology (India) * Department of Science ...

. He is associated with the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar as a member of its Scientific Advisory Committee and has delivered lectures on its behalf. He has also served as the president of the Indian Immunology Society from 2004 to 2008.

Awards and honors

The Indian Academy of Sciences elected Rao as their fellow in 1993 and he became a fellow of the

, the next year. The

awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1997 and he received the

in 1999. He was elected by the Indian National Science Academy as a fellow in 2000, the same year as he received the Millennium Plaque of Honour of the Indian Science Congress. He is also a recipient of the Ranbaxy Research Award which he received in 2001.

Selected bibliography

* * * *

Notes

References

External links

* :University of Pune alumni {{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Kanury Venkata Subba Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1958 births Scientists from Maharashtra Indian immunologists Indian biochemists Indian scientific authors Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India Living people N-BIOS Prize recipients 20th-century Indian biologists Telugu people