Award-winning scientist’s goal: treatment for epigenetic diseases

Award-winning scientist’s goal: treatment for epigenetic diseases

Till now, the work has revealed the normal folding patterns in the nucleus of a cell. The next step will involve understanding aberration in this pattern leading to diseases, mutations and other problems that are epigenetic in nature. “And the long-term goal would be to be able to find treatment for them,” said Sanjeev Galande, one of the nine scientists chosen for the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial (CSIR) for the year 2009-10, on Monday.

The award was given to Galande for his work that he had done while he was at the National Centre for Cell Sciences (NCCS). He joined Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, in May this year. He has received the award in the biological sciences category.

Galande has received the award for his work on mechanisms of regulation of gene activity, which helps to understand the irregularities in cell behaviour. Galande is now at the epigenetics department at IISER, but most of his research for this project by him has been carried out till March 2010, when he was with NCCS.

Talking about his work, Galande said, “We found that activity of genes can be controlled by the manner in which they are organised in the nucleus of the cell and the folding principles are epigenetic in nature. But we have a long way to go. It is just the tip of the iceberg.”

He said a major emphasis of his work is on studying epigenetic modifications, the heritable changes that influence gene function without changing DNA sequence.

The outcome of these studies would be important towards understanding the biology of diseases such as infectious diseases and cancer.

Galande was earlier awarded the Swarna Jayanti Award by the Department of Science and Technology and the prize money was utilised to acquire a genome sequencing machine at IISER.

The award, named after the founder of CSIR, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, is given annually by CSIR for notable research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and physics. It is the highest award for science in India. It was first awarded in 1958.

N Krishna Ganesh, director, IISER, Pune said, “We are proud to have scientists of the calibre of Galande here with us. The centre of excellence for epigenetic, that we have set up here can go a long way with the vision and guidance of minds like him.”

Epigenetics
It is the study of inherited changes in phenotype (appearance) or gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence

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