Chetan Eknath Chitnis

Chetan Eknath Chitnis (born 3 April 1961) is working as a Principal Investigator with the malaria research group in International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi. He won the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences in 2010.[1]

Education

In 1983, Dr. Chitnis completed his Master of Science in Physics at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Then, he went on to complete his Master of Arts in Physics at Rice University in 1985. In 1990, he completed his thesis in Biophysics to obtain the degree of philosophy from University of California-Berkeley.[2]

Career

Dr. Chitnis's work is predominantly in the areas of molecular parasitology and vaccine development for malaria by understanding the molecular and cellular biology aspects of host-parasite interactions.In the fight against malaria, his work was very important in developing antibodies as it shed light on the parasite binding proteins and their interactions with the Duffy blood group antigen of the host red blood cells.

At ICGEB, he has also established a protein production facility for the production of malaria vaccines based on novel concepts.

Dr Chitnis is working as a Principal Investigator with the malaria research group in ICGEB. He has published over 40 international papers and has three patents pertaining to malaria vaccines.

Awards and honors

During the last year of his doctoral research, he won the University of California Regents' Fellowship and the Henry Kaiser Fellowship. The following year he became the Abraham Rosenberg Research Fellow. From 1991-1995, he was the Fogarty International Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda.

In 1995, he was awarded the ICAAC Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Microbiology.[3]

In 1997, he received the Dr. B.N. Singh Memorial Oration Award from the Indian Society for Parasitology.[4] In the same year, he also won the MOT Iyengar Award for Research on Malaria.[5]

From 2000 to 2005, he was the International Research Scholar at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in USA [6] and the International Senior Research Fellow at the Wellcome Trust in UK.[7] And in 2004, Mr. Chitnis won the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award in Medical Sciences.[8]

From 2007 to 2010, he was the Tata Innovation Fellow. In 2009, he was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.[9] In the same year, he also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.[10] In 2010, he won the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Infosys Prize laureate in life sciences in 2010 - Dr. Chetan E. Chitnis". Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  2. ↑ "Profile of Chetan Chitnis". International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  3. ↑ "ICAAC Young Investigator Awards Past Laureates". American Society for Microbiology. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  4. ↑ "Recipients of Dr. B.N. Singh Memorial Oration Award". The Indian Society of Parasitology. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "M.O.T.Iyengar Award (1997)". List of recipients of ICMR awards and prizes for 1997. Indian Council of Medical Research. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "Profile of Chetan E. Chitnis". HHMI Alumni International Scholars. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  7. ↑ "Past Fellows". Indian Senior Research Fellows. Wellcome Trust. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Recipients of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize For Science And Technology-2004". Awards. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Fellow Profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "IIT Bombay Celebrates Foundation Day". 2009 IIT-B News Archives. Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Infosys Prize laureate in life sciences in 2010 - Dr. Chetan E. Chitnis". Infosys Science Foundation. Retrieved 21 January 2012.