SJRI, Bangalore, honoured by Waters for Center of Innovation Programme

(L-R) Dr John Gebler, General Manager, Waters Centers of Innovation Programme, Dr K Srinivasan, Dean, St John’s Research Institute, Dr PR Krishnaswamy, Professor and Consultant, St John’s Research Institute, Prof Amit Mandal and KV Venugopalan, President, Waters India at the awards ceremony

St Johns Research Institute (SJRI), Bangalore, part of the St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, which is run by the CBCI Society for Medical Education, has been honoured by Waters for its Centers of Innovation Programme for research in the field of structural proteomics. SJRI is the first institution in India to receive the designation of a Waters Center of Innovation.

Under the direction of Amit Mandal, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Clinical Proteomics, St John’s has earned a reputation for its research in blood disorders and other diseases that disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations.

“What you see today is a culmination of a great amount of dedication and passion on the part of Mandal. Our relationship with Waters is not just one of a client and vendor; it is a true working partnership and has been ever since this laboratory came into existence in 2009,” said K Srinivasan, Dean, St John’s Research Institute.

On hand to congratulate, Mandal and his team was KV Venugopalan, President, Waters India. “We are proud to be associated with Mandal’s outstanding and pioneering work in structural proteomics,” he said. “Partnering with St John’s Research Institute is a reflection of our mutual interests in serving society by improving the health of patient communities through science.”

Mandal said that as a physical chemist with a special interest in molecular structure, he came to mass spectrometry in 2005 when his professor encouraged him to learn mass spectrometry. “The boss is always right I guess,” he said. “I did an Internet search and found the citation report for Prof John Fenn’s paper on electrospray mass spectrometry of large molecules. The citation index growth of this paper convinced everyone that electrospray mass spectrometry was an important breakthrough in science. So I gradually started learning about mass spectrometry. It’s made all the difference.”

EP News Bureau – Mumbai