Dr M.BalasubramanyamDean of Research Studies & Senior Scientist, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation(MDRF), India
Biography
Dr.M.Balasubramanyam, PhD is at present Dean of Research Studies & Senior Scientist at the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai. He obtained his PhD degree in 1987 from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. During 1991 to 1995, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Scientist at the Hypertension Research Center of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Newark, USA on ?Cell signaling & Molecular medicine aspects with special reference to diabetes?. During 1996-99, he served as a faculty at the Center for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai. He joined the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in 1999 and instrumental in many of its academic developments including infrastructure for basic science and translational studies. He has over 80 original research publications and many awards to his credit. He is also an elected Member of the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network (A-IMBN), Member of the National Academy of Sceinces (MNASc), Fellow of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (FAPASc), Fellow of the Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists (IABMS) and Secretary of the Madras Science Foundation (MSF). He has recently received the prestigious Endeavour Executive Fellowship from the Education Department of Govt. of Australia. Dr.Balu serves as an Expert Committee member in many funding agencies of Govt. of India including Expert Committee member ?Southern Region for DST-INSPIRE Fellows. His current research interests include: Cell signaling and molecular medicine with special reference to diabetes and its vascular complications, molecular mechanisms of accelerated ageing, redox signaling and ?biomarkers? of oxidative stress, role of microinflammation, ER stress, telomere biology, the gut (microbiota) connection to diabetes, Role of endocrine disruptors, proteomics/epigenetics/miRNA profiling in fat and skeletal muscle with special reference to insulin signaling and drug discovery, stem cell research, testing and validating point-of-care medical devices, bio-prospecting molecular targets from herbal treasure and marine biodiversity and development of cell-based, high-throughput assays. Dr.Balu?s team is one of the very strong groups working on Molecular Aspects of Metabolic Disorders in the country.
Research Interest
Disease Biology; Molecular pathogenesis of diabetes and its vascular complications including diabetic retinopathy; Vascular Biology and signaling studies on VSMC; Clinical significance and subclinical relevance of cellular and molecular alterations in metabolic diseases; Mechanisms of accelerated senescence (ageing) and telomere biology; Insulin signaling & Proteomics; Epigenetics; RNAi and miRNA, gut microbiome aspects of diabetes, Unraveling mechanisms of hyperglycemic memory, Calcium & Redox signaling, Proinflammation, Oxidative stress, ER stress, AGE pathway and biomarker(s) identification; Role of Endocrine Disruptors in diabetes; Bioprospecting herbal molecules; Non-invasive point-of-care (POC) clinical measures and medical devices.