The Biophysics Research: The Role of Indian Biophysical Society (IBS) and the Asian Biophysics Association (ABA)

摘要

Since the days of Jagadish Chandra Bose, the first Indian physicist to realize the importance of physics in biology, the area of biophysics flourished at many Universities and Insti-tutes as centers for multidisciplinary research in India. N. N. Dasgupta was another active researcher from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) in Kolkata fabricated the first electron microscope in India and played a key role in introducing bio-physics as a part of physics teaching at the University of Calcutta. In later years, a separate Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics was established at the University of Calcutta. At the same time, A. R. Gopala Ayengar at Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Mumbai was doing in biophysical studies with radioactive isotopes and ionizing radiations. Also at the University of Madras, G. N. Ramachandran developed a laboratory for study of biomole-cules using of X-ray crystallography. Under his leadership, pioneering work on the triple helical structure of collagen was determined. Since then the famous Ramachandran plot has been used internationally as a method for predicting the pro-tein secondary structures. G. N. Ramachandran later moved to Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, where V. Sasisekharan, an active member of his group, made significant contributions in predicting alternative DNA structures that are different from the usual Watson-Crick Model. By this time, in several other parts of India, physicists and biologists working in different areas found it relevant to apply their ex-pertise in diverse problems of biophysical research.