New Delhi: The well known bio-scientist, Dr Rakesh Kumar Mishra, has taken over as the new Director of Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), a premier research organization in frontier areas of modern biology. The institute is affiliated to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Dr Mishra was previously working as the Senior Principal Scientist and Group Leader at the the Genome Organisation and Nuclear Architecture laboratory based at the CCMB itself. Well recognized for his research achievements, Dr Mishra is an elected fellow of many reputed bodies such as the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Sciences and Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences. He has more than 95 articles to his credit in the national and international journals.
A look at the illustrious career of Dr Mishra:
Dr Rakesh K Mishra obtained his Masters degree in Chemistry in 1981 and doctorate in Organic Chemistry in 1986 from the University of Allahabad. His research then was into non-B DNA conformations and DNA topolgy at Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
During 1988-1992, he worked at CCMB as scientist and studied transcription initiation in prokaryotes, chemical recognition and cleavage of DNA. Then during the 1992-1996, antisense oligonucleotide mediated knock down against protozoan parasites at the University of Bordeaux, France and small nucleolar RNAs in Xenopus oocytes to study their role in rRNA maturation at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, USA.
From the 1996 to 2001, Dr Mishra worked on the chromatin organization and regulation of homeotic gene complex of Drosophila melanogaster at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
During 2001, he came back to India and joined CCMB again. His research then continued in the comparative and functional genomics of non-coding DNA besides also the organization and regulation of Hox complexes: the evolutionary logic of anterior-posterior body axis formation in animals. His group also did research in epigenetic regulation and development.
