Research

Dorairajan Balasubramanian is distinguished for his important contributions to the understandig of the basic biological processes involved in some eye diseases, notably cataract and glaucoma. His expertise in biophysical chemistry and molecular biology have enabled him to

(a) identify the origin and chemical identities of several chromophores and pigments that accumulate in the aging and cataractous human lens; (b) to show how some of these accumulants contribute further to the covalent damage of the lens proteins, through oxidative and cross-linking mechanisms; (c) to suggest the mechanistic link between smoke inhalation and cataractogenesis; (d) to evaluate the ability of some plant natural products in delaying/preventing cataract; and (e) to do molecular functional analysis of mutant crystallins that are seen in congenital cataracts in children, and show how these molecules form scattering particles in situ in lens cells.

More recently, he has been able to suggest one of the functions of the glaucoma-associated protein optineurin and how mutations in it lead to retinal ganglion cell death.

Career

• 2007-2010 President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, India
• since 1998 Director of Research, L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India
• 1982-1998 Deputy Director and Director, centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
• 1977-1982 Professor and Dean, School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
• 1967-1977 Lecture and Assistant Professor in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
• 1965-1966 Post-doctoral Research (as a Jane Coffin Foundation Fellow) at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, USA
• 1965 Ph. D. degree in Chemistry, from Columbia University, New York, USA

Projects

• Project Coordinator, Champalimaud Foundation’s Translational Centre in Eye Diseases (CTRACER), LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India
• Project Coordinator, Wellcome Trust project on R & On Affordable Healthcare, India (project on the use of scaffolds for cultivating stem cells)

Functions

• 2019-2021 Vice President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy
• Member of the Council of Indian Academy of Sciences
• Secretary General, Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS)
• Member, International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies
• Member, International Basic Sciences Panel, UNESCO, Paris, France
• Member, International Chapters Committee, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), USA

Honours and Memberships

• since 2009 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• Elected Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, India
• Elected Fellow of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi
• Elected Fellow of National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad
• Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington DC, USA
• Elected Fellow, Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (earlier called the Third World Academy of Sciences, TWAS), Trieste, Italy
• Elected Fellow, Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology
• Elected Fellow, National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany