Virendra Nath Pandey (born 1947) is an Indian geneticist, molecular virologist and enzymologist, known for his studies on the DNA recombinase

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

complex. He is an associate professor at the

New Jersey Medical School New Jersey Medical School (NJMS)—also known as Rutgers New Jersey Medical School—is a medical school of Rutgers University, a public research university in Newark, New Jersey. It has been part of the Rutgers Division of Biomedical and Healt ...

of the

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

and a former scientist at

Bhabha Atomic Research Center The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 19 ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1991, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Virendra Nath Pandey, after completing his graduate (Biology and Agricultural Sciences) and master's (Mycology and Plant Pathology) degrees in 1966 and 1968 respectively from

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

, started his career as a lecturer at Ranjit Singh Memorial PG College of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University (formerly Agra University), where he worked until 1970. His next move was to Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, Rishikesh as a microbiologist and in 1973, he joined

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1 ...

as an assistant professor, simultaneously pursuing his doctoral studies to secure his PhD from Mumbai University in 1985. He served BARC until 1996 when he moved to

as an assistant professor where he is a tenured associate professor at the department of microbiology, biochemistry and molecular genetics. Pandey's researches are focused on genetic recombination and his studies on young rats revealed ''the presence of a DNA recombinase enzyme complex associated with their thymic

nuclear matrix In biology, the nuclear matrix is the network of fibres found throughout the inside of a cell nucleus after a specific method of chemical extraction. According to some it is somewhat analogous to the cell cytoskeleton. In contrast to the cytoskelet ...

''. He proposed that this presence in the prolymphocytes influences the rearrangement and recombination of genes in vertebrates. His researches are documented in a number of articles; ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific papers, has listed 91 of them. He has attended several international seminars, chaired many of them and has been an invited speaker at several others; ''Reverse Transcription Session of Retroviral Meeting'' of

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

(2003), ''International Conference on Drug Discovery'' of

Central Drug Research Institute The Central Drug Research Institute is a multidisciplinary research laboratory in Lucknow, India, employing scientific personnel from various areas of biomedical sciences. Prof. Tapas Kumar Kundu, a molecular biologist, academician and recipien ...

(2006), 36th Annual Meeting of Control Release Society, Copenhagen (2009) and ''Virology, Immunology and Epidemiology of Hepatitis Viruses - International Conference on Virology'' at Baltimore (2011) are some of the notable ones. He held the Biotechnology Associateship of the

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

in 1991 and the

awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards the same year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandey, Virendra Nath Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1947 births Scientists from Uttar Pradesh Indian geneticists Indian virologists Indian scientific authors Banaras Hindu University alumni University of Mumbai alumni Rutgers University faculty Living people 20th-century Indian biologists

Biography

See also

References

External links