Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor P. Prakash Babu was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to advancement of neuroscience at a recent event at the institution.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor P. Prakash Babu has been honoured with ‘The Life Time Achievement Award’ by the Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery Society (BIDDS), in recognition of his outstanding contributions to academia and scientific leadership and research in the area of neuroscience and drug discovery.
The award was presented during the recently-concluded ‘Global Summit on Innovative Drug Design, Discovery and Translational Research,’ organised by the Department of Bioinformatics, Pondicherry University and BIDDS.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Babu focused on how the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) protects the Central Nervous System from infections and toxins but is disrupted during diseases and injuries. The BBB breakdown leads to oedema, inflammation, and neurodegeneration. In conditions like stroke and cerebral malaria, BBB damage allows infiltration of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and toxins and can lead to neuronal death, oxidative stress, and altered dendritic spine morphology affecting cognition.
Adjunct therapy with artemether and polycyclitol derivatives mitigated neurodegeneration and improved cognition in experimental models, he added.
Dinakar M. Salunke, formerly Director of ICGEB, New Delhi and Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Secretary General of BIDDS were the chief speakers at the conference.
R. Krishna, Head, Department of Bioinformatics spoke, followed by the release of conference souvenir and a book ‘Novel Approaches to overcome Cancer Resistance to Conventional Therapies,’ edited by A. Dinakara Rao and V. Amouda of Department of Bioinformatics.
Basant Kumar Tiwary, Dean(in-charge), School of Life Science and S. Mohane Coumar, organising secretary, also participated.
Published – November 06, 2025 07:50 pm IST
