Packard Foundation offers $875K fellowship to Indian-American biologist Ankur Jain
The academician researched about how RNA aggregation contributes to neurological diseases.
By PTI |
Agencies
Ankur Jain has discovered that certain RNAs can form aggregates, clumping together into membrane-less gels. (Image: https://biology.mit.edu/)
HOUSTON: Ankur Jain, an Indian-American biologist and academician, is among 22 researchers to have been named as Packard Fellows, a prestigious fellowship under which the early-career scientists get USD 875,000 to pursue their research work for the next five years.
Jain, who is a Whitehead Institute Biomedical Research member and assistant professor of biology at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named a Packard Fellow by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for his investigations on how RNA (Ribonucleic acid) aggregation contributes to neurological diseases. "I am very grateful for the Packard Foundation's support of our continued investigations of how RNA aggregation contributes to disease," Jain was quoted as saying by MIT news.
Jain received his bachelor degree in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2007, and earned a doctorate in Biophysics and Computational Biology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2013.
He conducted his postdoctoral research in the lab of Ronald Vale at the University of California, San Francisco.
Jain has discovered that certain RNAs can form aggregates, clumping together into membrane-less gels.
This process, known as phase separation, has been widely studied in proteins, but not in RNA. He has found that RNA gels occur in, and could contribute to, a set of neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington's disease.
ADVERTISEMENT
These conditions, known as repeat expansion diseases, are marked by abnormal repetition of short sequences of nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA (Deoxyribo nucleic Acid) and RNA.
Ankur Jain conducted his postdoctoral research in the lab of Ronald Vale at the University of California. (Image: https://biology.mit.edu/) The RNAs containing these sequences are more likely to clump together.
The fellowship will enable Jain to advance his research program around this phenomenon.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Although it is well-appreciated that RNA can form aggregates in test tubes, the biological implications of this process are not yet known," he explains.
"The award will allow us to examine how RNA aggregates affect cell function and ultimately contribute to neurological disease," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Each year, the foundation invites 50 university presidents to nominate two early-career professors each from their institutions.
From those 100 nominees, an advisory panel of distinguished scientists and engineers select the fellows, who receive individual grants of USD 875,000 over five years. The 2019 class comprises 22 fellows.
"We are extraordinarily pleased that Ankur has received such clear and substantive affirmation of his pioneering research on the role that RNAs play in devastating neurological diseases," said Whitehead Institute Director David C Page.
"This exciting work is at the forefront of soft-matter physics and cell biology, and could well open new chapters in RNA regulation specifically and in cell biology more broadly," he said.
Tagore, Satyarthi And 8 Other Nobel Winners Who Have Made India Proud
1/11
India's association with the Nobel Prize goes back, across centuries and latitudes. Poet, writer and thinker Rabindranth Tagore brought glory to the country when he became the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for the country. The 52-year-old Tagore was accorded the honour in 1913, 12 years after it made its debut.
Ever since, nine other laureates with an India connection have been conferred the prestigious award in various categories, Abhijit Banerjee being the latest.
There were a few famous names who were nominated several times, but failed to bag the award. While Indian poet Sri Aurobindo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and 1950, the committee had considered Mahatma Gandhi for the Peace Prize five times in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 & 1948 (days before his assassination).
Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel had drafted a will in 1895 where he reserved a large part of his estate to establish Nobel Prizes after concerns of how the world would remember him. He wanted the awards to be given to individuals (based on their achievements), annually, despite their nationality. He died in 1896.
It took nearly five years for the committee to set up, and the first set of awards for Physiology or Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, Physics and Peace were awarded in 1901. After 67 years, Sweden's central bank with donation from donation from the Nobel Foundation, established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1968.
Here's a look at all the Indians who brought honour to the nation.
India's association with the Nobel Prize goes back, across centuries and latitudes. Poet, writer and thinker Rabindranth Tagore brought glory to the country when he became the first Indian to win t..
Read More
Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to get a Nobel Prize in 1913, and in his area of expertise - Literature. He won the award for "his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West".
While he originally wrote in Bengali, Tagore reached out to a wider audience in the West with his translation of poetry that conveyed 'the peace of the soul in harmony with nature'. The Swedish academy, on its website, says that 'Tagore's writing is deeply rooted in both Indian and Western learning traditions'.
Born in 1861, the Calcutta-born writer was well known for fiction in the form of poetry, songs, stories, dramas, and it included portrayals of people's lives, literary criticism, philosophy and social issues.
Tagore was home-schooled, but went to England for formal education. However, he didn't complete his studies there. His inclination towards humanity and social reforms increased when he started managing the family estates. He often participated in the Indian nationalist movement, and Mahatma Gandhi was his dear friend. The then British Government in 1915 honoured Tagore with knighthood, but he returned it within a few years as a sign of protest against British policies in the country.
He passed away in 1941 at the age of 80.
Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to get a Nobel Prize in 1913, and in his area of expertise - Literature. He won the award for "his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, ..
Read More
India's first physicist to win a Nobel Physics Prize in 1930 "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him" was Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.
Born in 1888, the Tiruchirappalli-born scientist's discovery helped other researchers analyse different types of material using his scattering of light phenomenon.
In 1928, Venkata Raman found out that light spreads in different directions when light meets particles that are smaller than its wavelength. He further established that a small portion of the scattered light acquires other wavelengths than that of the original light because some of the incoming photons' energy can be transferred to a molecule, giving it a higher level of energy.
When he received the award, he was working with the Calcutta University. At 82, he passed away in Bangalore.
India's first physicist to win a Nobel Physics Prize in 1930 "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him" was Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.
Born ..
Read More
Har Gobind Khorana's work on electron diffraction got him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shared the award with Robert W Holley and Marshall W Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis".
In the 1950s, it was established that genetic information is transferred from DNA to RNA, to protein. One sequence of three nucleotides in DNA corresponds to a certain amino acid within a protein. In order to crack the genetic code, Marshall Nirenberg discovered the first piece of the puzzle. The remain part of the study was carried out in the following year.
Born in 1922, the Raipur-based built different RNA chains with the help of enzymes, which further helped him to produce proteins using these enzymes. The amino acid sequences of these proteins then solved the rest of the puzzle.
During his research, Khorana was a part of the Wisconsin University in Madison. He spent his last years in Concord, Massachusetts, and passed away in 2011.
Har Gobind Khorana's work on electron diffraction got him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shared the award with Robert W Holley and Marshall W Nirenberg "for their interpretation o..
Read More
Mother Teresa was the first woman with close Indian ties to get the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. While she was born in Macedonia (then Ottoman Empire's Uskup) to parents of Albanian descent, she was sent to Calcutta to be a teacher after she entered a nunnery.
Also known as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she had a calling at the age of 12. After coming to India, she decided to serve the poor as she lived amongst them.
After founding Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, she, along with her helpers, built homes for orphans, nursing homes for lepers and hospices for the terminally ill. Her organisation provided aid in other parts of the world.
While she was appreciated worldwide, she also faced criticism as the people suffering in the hospices were refused pain relief, but Mother Teresa got hospital treatment. She also had conservative views on abortion.
She became the spokesperson for the Vatican. Her canonisation took place in 2003, and Pope Francis declared her a saint in 2016.
Mother Teresa was the first woman with close Indian ties to get the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. While she was born in Macedonia (then Ottoman Empire's Uskup) to parents of Albanian descent, she was sent ..
Read More
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar made India proud in 1983 when he bagged the Nobel Prize in Physics "for theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars". He shared the award with another physicist William Alfred Fowler.
Chandrasekhar was born in 1910 when Lahore (now in Pakistan) was a part of India. During the affiliation at the time of the award, he was a part of Chicago University in Illinois.
It is common knowledge that stars form clouds of gas and dust in the universe. When gravity pulls these clouds, energy is released in the form of heat. With the rising temperature, the atomic nuclei inside the stars start reacting. Chandrasekhar started working on his theories of the process stars subsequently undergo in 1930s. In his research, he explained how a star turns into a white dwarf when the hydrogen fuel of stars (of a certain size) begins to run out. His theory suggested that the star further collapses into a compact star known as a white dwarf.
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar made India proud in 1983 when he bagged the Nobel Prize in Physics "for theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the sta..
Read More
Economist Amartya Sen was the sole winner of the 1998 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, which was introduced by the Nobel Prize Committee in memory of Alfred Nobel, "for his contributions to welfare economics".
During his award, he was with Trinity College, Cambridge in United Kingdom. He researched on fundamental problems in welfare economics, important resources in a community, and ways to divide them.
Sen's research focused on the value of values in collective decision-making, and ways in which welfare and poverty can be measured. The Swedish academy, on its website, wrote that Sen's efforts stem from his interest in questions of distribution and, in particular, the lot of society's poorest members. Sen also included famines in his studies to create a deeper understanding of the economic reasons behind them and poverty.
In 1933, Sen was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, and studied in Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) where his father was a professor of chemistry. After completing his studies from Kolkata and Cambridge University, he got his PhD in 1959. He also held professorships in India, Oxford and Cambridge universities in UK, and Harvard University in US.
He is currently married to Emma Rothschild. Before Rothschild, he was married to Eva Colorni for 7 years and Nabaneeta Dev Sen for 18 years. He has two children from each of his previous marriages.
Economist Amartya Sen was the sole winner of the 1998 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, which was introduced by the Nobel Prize Committee in memory of Alfred Nobel, "for his contributions..
Read More
Author VS Naipaul won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel people to see the presence of suppressed histories".
While he was born in Trinidad in 1932, he belongs to an Indian descent. According to the Nobel Prize website, the author's descendant had moved to India to work as indentured labourers in cocoa plantations of Trinidad. He later moved to UK after receiving an Oxford scholarship, and became a citizen of that country.
Before this Nobel, Naipaul was felicitated with the 1971 Booker Prize for his novel 'In a Free State', and Trinidad and Tobago's highest honour - Trinity Cross - in 1989. Britain also awarded his with knighthood in 1990.
Naipaul was married to Patricia Ann Hale for 41 years who succumbed to cancer. Two months after her death, he married Pakistani journalist Nadira Alvi, 21 years younger than him.
Known for his works of fiction and nonfiction in English, Naipaul passed away last year in August.
Author VS Naipaul won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel people to see the presence of suppressed histories".Wh..
Read More
Tami Nadu-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". He shared the award with Thomas A Steitz and Ada E Yonath.
Born in 1952, he was working with MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge when he received the honour.
Vital functions of an organism are managed by complex protein molecules produced in cells' ribosomes. Ribosome is a molecular machine that is found in living cells' cytoplasm which synthesises proteins. Along with other researchers, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan used x-ray crystallography in 2000 to determine the structure of ribosomes, which is made up of hundreds of thousands of atoms. Among other applications, Nobel Prize website mentioned that Ramakrishnan's research has been vital in production of antibiotics.
He grew up in a family of academics. While his father, CV Ramakrishnan, got his postdoctoral fellowship in Madison, Wisconsin, his mother, R Rajalakshmi, obtained a McGill University fellowship to do PhD in psychology, which she finished in 18 months.
Tami Nadu-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". He shared the award with Thomas A Steitz and Ada E Yona..
Read More
Kailash Satyarthi, along with Malala Yousafzai, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people, and for the right of all children to education."
Born in 1954, he taught children in Vidisha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, where he grew up. He had acquired his degree in electrical engineering, but decided to be a teacher. In 1980, he left teaching and founded 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan', an organisation that worked towards freeing children from slave-like conditions. He has been active for the fight against child labour and children's rights to education in a wide range of other organisations.
To achieve a peaceful world, following the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian activist has been working towards ending child labour, exploitation, and encouraging them to attend school. He has also contributed to the development of international conventions on the rights of children, according to the Swedish academy.
As a member of UNESCO body, he works towards providing 'Education for All'. After his Nobel win, he made it to the Fortune 'World's Greatest Leaders' list in 2015.
Satyarthi is married to Sumedha, and has two children - a son and daughter.
Kailash Satyarthi, along with Malala Yousafzai, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people, and for the right of all children to e..
