Balaji Prakash (born 1968) is an Indian structural biologist, biochemist and the Associate Dean of Sciences & Professor, Biological and Life Sciences, at the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, since July 2020. Prior to this he served as senior principal scientist and the head of the department of molecular nutrition of the

Central Food Technological Research Institute The Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) is an Indian food research institute and laboratory headquartered in Mysore, India. It is a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. India is the wor ...

. Known for elucidating the structure of a unique

GTP-binding protein G proteins, also known as guanine nucleotide-binding proteins, are a family of proteins that act as molecular switches inside cells, and are involved in transmitting signals from a variety of stimuli outside a cell to its interior. Their ac ...

, Prakash is an elected fellow of the

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 was a senior research fellow of The Wellcome Trust, UK. 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 ...

of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2009.

Biography

Central Food Technological Research Institute front view

Balaji Prakash, born in 1968, did his doctoral studies 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 ...

and after securing a PhD in 1996, he completed his post-doctoral work at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in 2002. Returning to India, he joined

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

the same year as an assistant professor at the Special Center for Molecular Medicine but his stay there lasted only 7 months. In November 2002, he joined the

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was ...

at their Department of Biological Sciences and Bio-Engineering where he later served as an associate professor from 2005 to 2010 and as a professor from 2010 to 2014. It was at this time, he took a long leave from the institute to join the Department of Molecular Nutrition of the

as a senior principal scientist, a position he holds to date. He also serves as a CSIR recognized faculty at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research.

Career

Prakash's research focus is on

enzyme catalysis Enzyme catalysis is the increase in the reaction rate, rate of a process by a Biomolecule, biological molecule, an "enzyme". Most enzymes are proteins, and most such processes are chemical reactions. Within the enzyme, generally catalysis occurs ...

, with special interest in the enzyme family composed of

GTPases GTPases are a large family of hydrolase enzymes that bind to the nucleotide guanosine triphosphate (GTP) and hydrolyze it to guanosine diphosphate (GDP). The GTP binding and hydrolysis takes place in the highly conserved P-loop "G domain", a pro ...

kinases In biochemistry, a kinase () is an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of phosphate groups from high-energy, phosphate-donating molecules to specific substrates. This process is known as phosphorylation, where the high-energy ATP molecule don ...

and sugar nucleotidyltransferases, as well as the development of peptides for food industry. During his post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, he elucidated the structure of a GTP-binding protein. At CFTRI, he has worked on molecular nutrition and the development of

nutraceuticals A nutraceutical or bioceutical is a pharmaceutical alternative which claims physiological benefits. In the US, "nutraceuticals" are largely unregulated, as they exist in the same category as dietary supplements and food additives by the FDA, und ...

and has developed a technology titled ''Microbes based printing for fabrication of electronic circuits'' for which he holds the patent; another of his invention, ''A novel device for crystallizing proteins and protein complexes or other biological macromolecules'', is being prepared for patent submission. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 55 of them. Besides, he has delivered invited speeches at seminars including the ''2nd Indo-American Frontiers of Science Symposium'' held at Irvine, California in 2006 and was a senior research fellow of the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

in 2004.

Awards and honors

The

(DBT) of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2009. In 2011, he was elected as a member of the

Guha Research Conference Guha Research Conference (GRC) is a professional society set up by Indian scholars to develop the field of Biochemistry. It was established in 1960, and is named after Biresh Chandra Guha (1904-1962). The first four GRC meetings were held alongsid ...

and the

elected him as a fellow in 2013.

Selected bibliography

* * *

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prakash, Balaji N-BIOS Prize recipients Indian scientific authors Living people Scientists from Mysore Indian biochemists Indian Institute of Science alumni IIT Kanpur faculty Max Planck Society alumni Jawaharlal Nehru University faculty 1968 births