Dr Niti Kumar, Senior Scientist from Division of Molecular Parasitology and Immunology, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, has won the SERB Women Excellence Award for the year 2020. Dr Niti Kumar will receive the Award from the President of India during National Science Day Celebrations on February 28, 2020, at Vigyan Bhawan.

This is a huge recognition of her research group’s work on understanding the protein quality control machinery in human malaria parasite. The study could well lead to finding an alternative drug for malaria intervention.

“There are isomers found in every human but in nephropathy patients it suddenly goes out of range. The drop is indicative that there is a disease possibility. We looked at ratio of these isomers that gave us the diagnostic properties”

Instituted by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (SERB-DST), the award is given to women scientists below 40 years of age who have received recognition from other national academies. The award constitutes a research grant of Rs 5 lakh per annum for 3 years.

Dr. Niti Kumar has many awards and recognitions to her credit. Some of the prominent ones include: Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (DBT-IYBA, 2015); INSA Medal for Young Scientist (2010) by Indian National Science Academy; Ramalingaswami Fellowship (2013-2018); EMBO Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2010-2012); Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2010); Max Planck Post-doctoral Fellowship at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (2009); and Marie Curie Early Stage Research Fellowship by European Union under 6th Framework Programme (2005-2006). India Science Wire