IIT Roorkee Bio-Tech Professor Wins Prestigious Award for Cancer Research

A professor of Biotechnology at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Pranita P Sarangi has won Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA) 2017. Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology selected Pranita P Sarangi for the award. She has been selected for her proposed work and scientific achievements in the field of cancer immunology.

Through IYBA, Pranita P Sarangi bagged a research grant of Rs. 50 lakh and a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh per annum during the project period.

Commenting on the achievement, Pranita P Sarangi revealed that the award is prestigious and the scheme enables Department of biotechnology to identify and nurture exceptional and outstanding scientists with innovative ideas. The scheme will further enable the young scientists to take up research in frontier areas of biotechnology, she added.

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Pranita P Sarangi’s work is all about the immune system, which plays a critical role in protecting the human body from the development of cancers. As the time progresses, the anti-cancer immunity becomes non-functional in cancer patients, which is disastrous.

Many scientists have revealed that cancer cells in human body adopt varied mechanisms to make immune cells non-functional. Sarangi’s work focuses on re-educating the immune cells in the human body through new molecular interactions in a cancer environment. The process will help in the development of novel targeted therapeutics, which could further play a crucial role in managing cancer patients by restoring the functions of immune cells.

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Such kind of research activities will be highly beneficial to the medical field and society. Let us hope that more young scientists will come up with solutions for challenges that are being faced in science and technology.