Public Lecture
April 7, 2015 (Tuesday)
6:00pm
LH-5, Lecture Hall Complex
Human Brain: Complexity Behind The Simplicity
Dr. V. Ravindranath
(Centre for Neuroscience, IISc Bengaluru)
Abstract: The human brain is the interpreter of our senses, controller of movement and in fact responsible for all we embrace as civilisation.
It consists of about 100 billion nerve cells which are interconnected through a million billion connections measuring up to 3.2 million kilometre
of wiring. This wiring is essential for performing simplest to the most complex tasks. In the last two decades we have witnessed an explosion
of knowledge in neuroscience. The stage is set for a more thorough understanding of the brain and for translating this knowledge into
strategies to protect the brain from the vagaries of nature, both genetic and environmental. In order to achieve this goal, neuroscience
research has accommodated multidisciplinary methods integrating the many levels of functional organisation of the brain, from molecules to
neurons to networks to systems and behaviour.
Apart from the interest in understanding how the brain performs cognitive functions and finding links between behaviour, brain and mind,
there are serious health related issues. Brain-related disorders affect large sections of population and contribute up to one-third of the total
disease burden in both developing and developed nations. From birth to old age, a host of neurological and mental illnesses afflict mankind.
Most of these are poorly understood and treatments are palliative rather than curative. Through the understanding of brain we can enrich
adult life, and help us age gracefully.
About the speaker: Dr. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath obtained her Ph.D from the University of Mysore in 1981. In 1986, after completing her
post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA, she joined the Department of Neurochemistry at
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, (NIMHANS) Bangalore. In 1999, the Dept. of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of
India sought her out to help establish the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), an autonomous institution of DBT, Ministry of Science and
Technology as a centre of excellence and to co-ordinate and network neuroscience research groups in the country. She continued as
Director, NBRC till May 2009, when she returned to Bangalore at the Indian Institute of Science as Professor and Chair of the newly created
Centre for Neuroscience.
During her tenure as Director of NBRC, she provided visionary leadership at NBRC, which in
a very short period attained a position of being an internationally acclaimed centre of
excellence. In a short span of 5 years she established a state-of-art institute in a rather
remote location and created a new paradigm for research by integrating mathematical and
computational science into the understanding complex biological systems. NBRC was
granted deemed University status in May 2002 to help promote human resource
development in an inter-disciplinary manner. She networked 45 institutions around the
country with NBRC with a goal to share resources and promote neuroscience.
The unifying goal of her laboratory is to understand pathogenic mechanisms underlying
neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease with a goal to
discover drug targets that can be used to develop disease-modifying therapies. To this effect,
she adopts a combinatorial approach to elucidate important cellular pathways involved in the
disease pathways in animal models of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. From the
therapeutic angle, she is also involved in defining and identifying the active entities and the
mode of action of traditional medicinal preparations used in the treatment of
neurodegenerative disorders, particularly senile dementia. Drug targets alone do not ensure
successful therapeutic strategies, as in situ drug metabolism in the brain is critical for drug
action. In this regard, she is identifying and characterizing brain cytochromes P450 enzymes
with particular emphasis on brain-specific biotransformation pathways of both drugs and
endogenous compounds that play a role in pathogenic phenomena, such as inflammation in
the brain. She was one of the first scientists in India to receive an independent RO1 grant
from NIH in 1996 and then again in 2004.
Dr. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath is elected Fellow of all the 3 science academies in the country, namely Indian National Science Academy,
Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India. She is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences,
India, Indian Academy of Neurosciences and Third World Academy of Sciences. She is a recipient of the prestigious S.S. Bhatnagar award
(1996), Omprakash Bhasin Award (2001) and the J.C. Bose National Fellowship (2006) and Padma Shri (2010).
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