BD Biosciences recognises ‘’Excellence in Flow Cytometry’’ in India

Reecha Shah, a research scholar from the lab of Dr Padma Shastry at National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune, received the 5th BD-TCS Award (2013). This year the award ceremony was held at Bhubaneshwar, which also hosted the first BD-TCS Award function in 2009. Shah won the award for her paper elucidating molecular mechanism of sodium valproate (VPA) potentiating the cytotoxic effects of anti-cancer drugs. The study provides new information on the possible utility of VPA, a commonly used anti-epileptic drug, in combination chemotherapy.

BD Biosciences, India in collaboration with The Cytometry Society – India (TCS), instituted an award for ‘Excellence in Flow Cytometry’ in 2009 to recognise the creative use of flow cytometry as a tool for addressing problems in the fields of clinical or basic research. The BD-TCS Award constitutes a prize of Rs 1,00,000 and a citation. Eligible investigators submit their published papers, which are screened by a national committee constituted by the President, TCS and the shortlisted papers are evaluated by an international jury consisting of eminent flow cytometry experts. The winner is felicitated during the annual meeting of TCS.

On receiving the coveted BD-TCS Award Reecha Shah said, “It is a great feeling to receive an award from such a prestigious platform. It is indeed very encouraging to see that our work is getting appreciated by the community and paves way for many more aspirants to participate each year. I hope this award takes me to greater heights as I plan to move to San Jose soon.”

YS Prabhakara, Business Director, BD Biosciences in India, said, “BD Biosciences is proud of its association with TCS. We have teamed with TCS to reward meritorious scientific research in India. We believe this will go a long way in motivating life science research specifically by using Flow cytometry. Flow technology can be gainfully employed much more (than present level) for research or clinical purposes. We are confident that through interactions with progressive societies of scientists like TCS.”

Flow Cytometry has been recognised as one of the important technologies that transformed the face of modern life science and biotechnology research in India. Over the past few years, the technology has witnessed continuous improvement in multicolour analysis, high speed cell sorting, new fluorochromes, innovative reagent portfolios, and new emerging applications in health care research. Flow Cytometry makes the scanning of millions of cells in minimum time and cells of interest can be further tagged with suitable add-ons to study their various characteristics. Flow Cytometry is a count and measure of the physical and chemical characteristics of numerous biological particles such as cells, cell subsets, DNA, surface antigens and bacteria.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai