CSIR-IMTECH’s Dr Ashwani Kumar gets Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award 2022 in Biological Sciences

New Delhi: Dr Ashwani Kumar, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR – Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh has been awarded the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for the year 2022, in the field of Biological Sciences.

This award has been given for his significant contributions in TB pathophysiology, especially the role of biofilm induced infections.

Earlier Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), announced the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) awards for 2022 in the presence of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Vice President, CSIR in New Delhi. The SSB Prize for Science and Technology is a coveted science award in India given annually by the CSIR for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The award is named after the founder Director of CSIR, Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and was first constituted in 1958.

Dr. Ashwani Kumar’s laboratory works on molecular pathogenesis of Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). His laboratory has found that Mtb can form biofilms, which are microbial communities, wherein the bacteria can hide away from the drugs and immune system in case of biofilm infection. His work has shown that the bacteria residing in these biofilms are tolerant to all the first-line and second-line anti-TB drugs. His lab discovered that cellulose is the major constituent of the Mtb biofilms and Cellulase can disrupt these biofilms. His laboratory recently demonstrated that disruption of Mtb bioflms in animals using Cellulase can improve the outcome of treatment. These findings pave way for discovery of new molecules that may treat TB faster.

Dr. Ashwani Kumar is the third scientist from CSIR-IMTECH to be conferred with this prestigious SSB award.

CSIR-IMTECH is a national center for excellence in microbial sciences and was established in 1984 under the aegis of CSIR. IMTECH’s vision and mission are to create translational ecosystem strengthened by fundamental discoveries and to address unmet healthcare and industrial needs with state-of-the-art processes and platforms.