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Dec 27, 1999
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SPECIAL SERIES Chetan
E. Chitnis, 38
Biologist
PARASITE
HUNTER
For
a man trained in physics from the IITs, working on the frontiers of
biology might appear a strange shift. But not to Chetan Chitnis who could
be closer to cracking the malaria conundrum than you think. He's homing in
on a vaccine for it by figuring out how the parasite plans out its
invasion of red blood cells. And blocking that path. To Chitnis,
inspiration came early in life from his scientist parents. The big switch,
of course, came in the US in the '80s
when he was at the molecular biology lab at Berkeley, and then at the
National Institutes of Health, where his tailing of the parasite began.
Chitnis
came back to India in 1996 as he got a chance to work at the well-stocked
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi. A
kind of best of both worlds approach. "It's possible to do good
science in this country," says Chitnis, who grew up believing that
becoming a scientist was a good thing. And if he can lasso the vector,
Chitnis will find that it is
even better.
-Subhadra
Menon
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