University of Hyderabad professors awarded JC Bose Fellowship

Two city-based senior scientists Dr Manjula Reddy from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Prof. Balasubramanian Senthilkumaran, University of Hyderabad (UoH), have received this year’s JC Bose Fellowship of Science and Engineering Research Board (2023), Government of India.

While Dr Manjula Reddy received the fellowship for her work in the field of bacterial growth, Prof Senthilkumaran has been recognized for research in Fish Molecular Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology.

The prestigious JC Bose Fellowship has been constituted by SERB to recognize active scientists for their outstanding performance. The JC Bose Fellow will receive personnel Fellowship of Rs, 25, 000 per month and a research grant of Rs. 15 lakh per annum for a period of five years. An amount of Rs 1 lakh is also



provided as overheads for the host institute.

Dr Manjula’s lab at CCMB is focused towards understanding how bacteria elongate, divide, and split their cell walls during cell cycle to successfully generate two equal daughter cells. The work in Dr Manjula’s lab is aimed at better understanding of fundamental aspects of bacterial physiology thereby providing novel strategies for development of alternate antimicrobial therapeutics.

Prof. Senthilkumaran had made significant and innovative contributions in understanding the sex differentiation as well as gonadal development at various stages of the life cycle of bony fishes. He is a pioneer in developing novel transient gene silencing in fish to understand their gene function and is credited with development of the concept of “brain sex differentiation” in fishes.