School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad

Aerial view of the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad courtesy Paramveer Singh Photography

One of the finest buildings on the University of Hyderabad campus which houses the elite School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad.

Some of the best scientists work here and the School alone has more than 115 ongoing research projects valued at over 78 crore rupees.

To apply to the courses in School of Life Sciences go to
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Last Date is 5 May 2017

Aerial Photography by Paramveer Singh Photography

Prof. Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad (UoH), received the prestigious ‘Millennium Plaques Honour’ in the inaugural session of the 104th annual meeting of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh on 3rd January 2017. The Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi presented the award to Prof. Appa Rao in the august presence of Hon’ble Governor of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Shri E. S. L. Narasimhan; Hon’ble Andhra Pradesh CM, Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu; Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan; Hon’ble Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Y.S. Chowdary and other dignitaries.

UoH V-C receives “Millennium Plaques of Honour” from the Prime Minister

Prof. Appa Rao Podile​, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad (UoH), received the prestigious ‘Millennium Plaques Honour’ in the inaugural session of the 104th annual meeting of Indian Science Congress Association​ (ISCA) at Tirupati​, Andhra Pradesh on 3rd January 2017. The Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi​ presented the award to Prof. Appa Rao Podile in the august presence of Hon’ble Governor of Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Shri E. S. L. Narasimhan​; Hon’ble Andhra Pradesh CM​, Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu​; Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan​; Hon’ble Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Y.S. Chowdary​ and other dignitaries.

ISCA honours key individuals for their significant and lifetime contribution to the development of Science and Technology in the country. ISCA, in the award letter, admired the contributions against various odds. ISCA stated that it is an attempt to pay humble respects and to salute the renowned scientists in India. ISCA, in its letter, appreciated his key role in the development of science and technology. It added that Prof. Appa Rao has been an institution builder and shaped the way the Science and Technology should develop in future.

Prof. Appa Rao has been a member of the task force on ‘bioagents for agriculture’, set up by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India (GoI) and member of the programme advisory committee on ‘plant sciences’, setup by the Department of Science and Technology, GoI. His group has been using an innovative approach to synthesize biological molecules that can help inducing innate immunity in plants. In a pioneering approach, his group has exploited the potential of plant-associated bacteria for better plant health. Their ability to degrade second most abundant polymer, like chitin, was used to protect crop plants from a variety of diseases. The unique efforts made in Prof. Appa Rao’s lab not only have implication in understanding plant’s response to external stimuli, but also provide new leads to develop non-chemical approaches for plant protection.

Prof. Appa Rao’s laboratory has been supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, in the form of ‘Tata Innovation Fellowship” and by the European Union as FP7 grant in the form of ‘Nano3Bio’ project. Prof. Appa Rao has been elected as fellow of the three national science academies and his students have also received several competitive awards in India and Europe.

Photo Courtesy: Press Information Bureau - PIB, Government of India and PMO India

Vice-Chancellor Professor Appa Rao Podile elected as President of Association of Microbiologists of India http://uohherald.commuoh.in/vice-chancellor-elected-as-president-of-association-of-microbiologists-of-india/

Vice-Chancellor elected as President of Association of Microbiologists of India

Professor Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, has been unanimously elected as the President of the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI). AMI is one of the oldest and reputed scientific organisations of India established in 1938. AMI has contributed significantly towards development of both research and teaching of microbiology in India. The Association also publishes a high standard journal “Indian Journal of Microbiology” in collaboration with Springer. The Association currently has over 4000 Life members and about 400 Corporate members. The Annual event of the Association is well attended with at least about 1000 participants every year.

Read more: http://uohherald.commuoh.in/vice-chancellor-elected-as-president-of-association-of-microbiologists-of-india/

Dr Niyaz Ahmed appointed Senior Director, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh at Dhaka

Dr. Niyaz Ahmed, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad has been appointed Senior Director, Laboratory Sciences and Services Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR’B) based in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a period of three years. Dr. Ahmed joined the Institute on 1st November 2016.

Dr Niyaz Ahmed has been the recipient of the National Bioscience Award of the Government of India and he directs a team of PhD scholars and post-doctoral fellows at the University. His work remains highly acknowledged and known in the area of infectious disease epidemiology and pathogen biology including studies on multiple drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria such as those causing TB and diarrhoeal diseases.

His recent work on ‘geographical genomics’ of the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori has been published in Nucleic Acids Research journal in January 2015 in collaboration with Australian Nobel Laureate, Barry J. Marshall. He has been admitted as the Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), United Kingdom in 2015. He was the only faculty from a University system to have been awarded the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) for the year 2016.

Dr. Niyaz Ahmed can be reached on email: [email protected]

Setting up of a Virtual Centre of Systems Biology at School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad

Setting up of a Virtual Centre of Systems Biology at School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad http://uohyd.ac.in/images/pdf/virtual_centre_sysem_biology_201016.jpg

Dr. Rajagopal Subramanyam, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad has been elected as a fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences - NASI (F.N.A.Sc, Allahabad). This fellowship has been given to Dr. Rajagopal for his significant contribution in Plant Sciences Field related to Structural Biology of Chloroplast and also for a fundamental understanding of abiotic stress tolerance with emphasis on adaptations of photosynthetic apparatus. These findings can help in sustenance of photosynthesis in plants/algae.

Dr. S Rajagopal of UoH elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Rajagopal Subramanyam, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences at the University of Hyderabad has been elected as a fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences - NASI (F.N.A.Sc, Allahabad). This fellowship has been given to Dr. Rajagopal for his significant contribution in Plant Sciences Field related to Structural Biology of Chloroplast and also for a fundamental understanding of abiotic stress tolerance with emphasis on adaptations of photosynthetic apparatus. These findings can help in sustenance of photosynthesis in plants/algae.

Dr. Subramanyam Rajagopal made significant contributions in Plant Biology, particularly in the area of Chloroplast Bioenergetics (Photosynthesis) and its structural aspects in Department of Plant Sciences, University of Hyderabad. His research focus was on the activity and components of photosynthetic apparatus in cyanobacteria, algae and higher plants during abiotic stress adaptation. His group studied in detail the structural organizational dynamics of photosystems (PS) and their light harvesting complexes (LHC) of PSII-LHCII and PSI-LHCI of Chlamydomonasreinhardtii and Arabidopsis thaliana under moderate stress like light, temperature and salt. He discovered that under fluctuating light, the light harvesting complex II-LHCB2 undergoes phosphorylation triggering dissociation of the entire LHCII from PS II and eventual migration to PSI. The temperature and salt stress induced state transitions (balancing energy transfer between PS II and PSI) in both C. reinhardtii and A. thaliana, constituting an important protective strategy under those stress conditions. Similarly, Dr. Rajagopal’s group studied the influence of iron deficiency on the organization of photosynthetic apparatus and proposed a structural model of photosystem I from C. reinhardtii. Further, over expression of ferredoxin NADP reductase in chloroplast of C. Reinhardtii conferred protection against abiotic stress.

His group has applied biophysical, biochemical, molecular and bioinformatics tools, to detect the changes in photosystems. In addition, Dr. Rajagopal’s lab has used proteomics and metabolomics-based approaches to identify the abiotic stress responsive signaling events in chloroplasts of higher plants, and algal systems. Dr. Rajagopal provided a fundamental understanding of abiotic stress tolerance with emphasis on adaptations of photosynthetic apparatus. His findings can help in sustenance of photosynthesis in plants/algae.

Founded in the year 1930, the National Academy of Sciences, India is the oldest Science Academy of the country. The main objective of the Academy is to provide a national forum for the publication of research work carried out by Indian scientists and to provide opportunities for exchange of views among them. (http://www.nasi.org.in/index.htm)

Dr. Rajagopal can be reached on e-mail: [email protected]

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) for the year 2016 has been awarded to Dr Niyaz Ahmed, Head of the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad.

Workshop on “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at University of Hyderabad

Microbiology students from the St. Francis College for Women visited the Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad on August 6th and 7th, 2016

Department of Microbiology organised a two day workshop on “Introduction to Bioinformatics, Gene and Protein Prediction Strategies” for the B.Voc. (Industrial Microbiology) I yr & II yr students at Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad on August 6th and 7th , 2016.The students were introduced to different databases in Bioinformatics, Data banks pairwise sequence alignment, Multiple sequence alignment, Protein analysis, Protein-protein interactions, PDB & MMDB, Gene prediction strategies, Protein prediction strategies, Molecular visualization, Tools phylogenetic analysis: Concept of trees, Phylogenetic trees & Multiple alignments.

Janaki Ammal National Award for Prof. Ch. Venkata Ramana http://uohherald.commuoh.in/janaki-ammal-national-award/

Janaki Ammal National Award for Prof. Ch. Venkata Ramana

Prof. Ch. Venkata Ramana, Professor and Head, Department of Plant Sciences in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been awarded the prestigious lifetime achievement award namely the Janaki Ammal National Award; instituted after the late Prof. E.K. Janaki Ammal by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India. This award has been given to Prof. Ramana in recognition of his contributions to bacterial taxonomy.

The award was given at the centenary function of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) held at Kolkata on 1st July 2016 and received from Hon'ble Union Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar. Prof. Ramana has also received the most prestigious Tata Innovation Fellowship of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for the year 2015-16 in recognition of outstanding research contributions in translation research.

Read more: http://uohherald.commuoh.in/janaki-ammal-national-award/

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India – Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN MHRD)
Sponsored Workshop on "Cancer Drug Discovery and Development”
Session on The Journey of Natco Pharma in Cancer Therapy
by A K S Bhujanga Rao, President, Natco Pharma Limited