Announcement for Dr I. C. CHOPRA MEMORIAL AWARD for the Years 2004

To commemorate the contributions of Dr. I. C. Chopra, Ex Head (1957-1964), Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu , a biennial “Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award” in the area of Pharmacology was instituted through the kind generosity of Mrs. M. Chopra W/o Late. Dr. I. C. Chopra.

Dr. I.C. Chopra

How to apply:

Applications on the prescribed format are invited for DR. I. C. CHOPRA MEMORIAL AWARD for the Years 2004 ( Cash award of Rs. 10,000 along with a medal and citation) from the Indian Nationals with proven contributions in the field of Drug development & General / Biochemical Pharmacology. Application form and other terms and conditions for the award can be obtained by writing to the Director, Regional Research Laboratory, Canal Road, Jammu Tawi-180 001. Last date for receiving filled in applications in all respects is February 28 , 2004 . Details of the Award and application format are also available on our websites http://herbalnet.org and http://rrljammu.org

Earlier recipients of this award:

Year Awardee  

2000 : Dr. C. K. Atal, Former Director, RRL, Jammu
2001 : Prof. Y. K. Gupta, Director, ITRC, Lucknow
2002 : Prof. (Mrs.) Manju Ray, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
2003 : Prof. P. Ramarao , Director , NIPER, Mohali

PROFORMA FOR SUBMITTING APPLICATION :

REGIONAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, JAMMU,

DR. I.C. CHOPRA MEMORIAL AWARD

Terms & Conditions for the Award:

REGIONAL RESEARCH LABORATORY, JAMMU

DR. I. C. CHOPRA MEMORIAL AWARD for the Year 2001

To commemorate the contributions of Dr. I. C. Chopra, Ex Head (1957-1964), Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu, an annual "Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award" in the area of Drug Development and General / Biochemical Pharmacology was instituted through the kind generosity of Mrs. M. Chopra W/o Late. Dr. I. C. Chopra.

Following are the guidelines for the selection of the awardee:

1. This award is given every year to a deserving scientist with proven contributions in the area of Drug development & General / Biochemical Pharmacology.
2. Both, presently employed scientists and those who have retired from the regular service from all over India are eligible for applying for the award on a prescribed proforma (copy enclosed).
3. Advisory Committee duly constituted by Director, RRL, Jammu comprising eminent experts from the field would make selection from the applications received.
4. Award would consist of a citation signed by the Director, RRL, Jammu , a cash award of Rs. 10,000 (Rupees Ten thousand only) and a medal.
5. The award is given for the outstanding contribution made by the scientist based on the work done exclusively in India .
6. This award will be presented on 26 th September 2005 on the occasion of CSIR Foundation Day celebrations at RRL, Jammu .
7. After the selection, the awardee would make a presentation on his outstanding contributions in the field.
8. Once selected and awarded the same work shall not be accepted for consideration for subsequent awards.

Winners of the earlier Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Awards

Winner of the fourth Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award for the year 2003

Prof. P. Ramarao
Director
NIPER, Mohali

Winner of the third Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award for the year 2002

Professor Manju Ray
Department of Biological Chemistry
Indian Association for Cultivation of Science
Jadavpur,
Kolkata
For his noteworthy discovery of pathways and developing lead molecules for cancer therapy

Winner of the second Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award for the year 2001

Dr. Y. K. Gupta
Formerly Professor, Department of Pharmacology, A.I.I.M.S, New Delhi
Presently Director, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow
For his extensive & excellent contributions in the area of neuropharmacology with particular reference to neurodegenerative disorders like emesis, epilepsy and alzheimer's disease

Winner of the first Dr. I. C. Chopra Memorial Award for the year 2000

Dr.C.K. Atal

Dr. C. K. Atal for his noteworthy achievements in the field of plant based drugs particularly the development of a natural non-steroidal drug "Sallaki" for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and for his endeavor to introduce it in the market has been selected for the Dr. I. C. Chopra, Memorial Award for the year 2000. The award will be given to him by Hon’ble Minister for HRD and Science & Technology Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi on the occasion of 59^th CSIR Foundation Day celebrations at New Delhi.

Brief Biodata of Dr. C.K. Atal is as under:

Dr. C.K. Atal’s education and training in India included B. Pharm from Medical College Amritsar, followed by M. Pharm. degree in Pharmacology from Punjab University, Amritsar ( Later Chandhigarh ). Later as J.N. Tata Endowment fellow he did his Ph.D. in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry under Professor Arthur E. Schwarting, from University of Connecticut (USA).

After this Dr. Atal worked as Chairman (Assoc. Professor) of the Department of Biosciences at Omaha, Nebraska ( USA).

After returning to India, in 1959 he was appointed head of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Later in 1964 he shifted to Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu as Assistant Director and became Director of this premier Institute in 1971.

In 1985, Dr. Atal joined UNIDO ( Vienna) as Chief Technical advisor and worked in Vietnam. He was also Honorary Professor of Chemistry in the University of Jammu, Jammu.

There are more than 400 publications in international journals to the credit of Dr. Atal. He has produced large number of Ph.D’s.

Some of the significant leads and path breaking results produced by Dr. C. K. Atal and his team members, which have been recognized by Pharmacologists worldwide are as under :

• His pioneering work on piperine has opened new vistas in the field of drug bioavailability.

• Discovery of Immunomodulators from plant sources from ‘Rasayanas’.

• Work on vasicine, vasicinone and its anologues exhibiting Bronchodilatory, uterotoxic-oxytoxic functions.

• Development of a plant based drug "Sallaki" for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and to introduce it in the market as a natural nonsteroidal drug .
• Development of Hepatoprotective agents and formulations.

Other Awards bagged by RRL, Jammu

RRL, Jammu bags CSIR Technology Award - 2001 for the production of Gluconate salts using Fermentation Technology

Dr. G.N.Qazi, Director RRL recieving the award from Mr. Bachi Singh Rawat Hon'able Minister of state for science & technology on 26th sept. 2001 on the occassion of CSIR Foundation Day.

An eco-friendly, highly low energy consuming and highly competitive fermentation process involves the use of a strain of Aspergillus niger developed at RRL Jammu which has a capacity to convert glucose to gluconates with a productivity of 5-6 kg Kl h under certain specifically defined physico-chemical conditions. The process has been developed at 500 fermentor scale (400 L working volume, 75 kg product) and validated at 43 bioreactor.

Gluconates have several established pharmaceutical and other industrial applications. As calcium, ferrous, copper and zinc salts these find use for oral and or injectable metal ion supplement for humans as well as animals. Sodium gluconate being an excellent metal sequestrant finds application as metal or bottle cleaning agent. For its ability to slow the process of polymerisation of cement at highly reduced moisture conditions, very large quantity of sodium gluconate is used as an additive by cement industry in Europe and Japan.

The main advantages of the present process are:

• The fungal strain of Aspergillus niger selected is a GRAS organism, highly stable under vegetative state and tolerate high concentration of lonic salts.
  
• Green and indigenous technology wherein chemically defined synthetic medium is used for fermentation.
  
• The product thus isolated directly from fermentation broth is of ISP/USP standard
  
• No byproduct or harmful effluent is generated in the process
• Very short fermentation batch cycle(24-26 hrs) for clacium -D-gluconate 150-180gl product makes the process very attractive for strategic economic reasons.
  
• A batch once seeded may be operated for scores of batches with 10% of the broth retention as seed culture for the subsequent batches.
  
• Barium -D-gulconate can also be produced by the fermentation process using the above fungal strain for the preparation of other salts like Zinc, Copper, Ferrous, Magnesium, Manganese.(Indian Patent application: NF 248/99; field June 1999).
  
• The process is economically attractive and viable at 1500 TPA with fermentation batch of 30 m ata total investment of about Rs. 1 Crore with annual returnsof 30-35%

Based on RRL technology a production plant for Calcium -D-gluconate at batch capacity of 1500 TPA has been set up by M/s Pratishta Industries Ltd. Secundrabad (A.P.)

National Horticulture Board Award

RRL bagged cash award from National Horticulture Board, Government of India, Jammu, for the development and effective transfer of technology of geraniol rich variety of Cymbopogon nardus var. confertiflorus Code named as RRL-CN-5.

VASVIK Industrial Research Award

Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samshodhan Vikas Kendra, Mumbai conferred VASVIK Industrial Research Award for the year 2000 to Dr. G. N. Qazi, Director for his contributions in the area of fermentation technology.

Best Industrial Invention Award

RRL, Jammu has bagged Best Invention 2nd Prize for its technology entitled," Fermentation Technology for the production of various Gluconate salts" during 64th All India Industrial Exhibition organised by The Exhibition Society of India, held from 1-15th January, 2004 at Hyderabad.