IIT Gandhinagar Faculty Wins Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award by the Department of Biotechnology

Gandhinagar: Prof Himanshu Shekhar of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) has been awarded the Har Govind Khorana-Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award 2020 by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. This award includes a research grant and a three-year fellowship, which will enable Prof Shekhar to pursue ultrasound-based approaches for treating breast cancer.

These awards are conferred to outstanding young scientists with innovative ideas and motivation to pursue research in frontier areas of biotechnology. Expressing his thoughts on this achievement, Prof Himanshu Shekhar said, “I feel extremely grateful for this recognition and support for our group’s work. Although radio/chemotherapy are used currently for treating breast cancer, they do not benefit all patients, and are not well tolerated for repeated treatments. Therefore, alternate approaches are needed to improve outcomes in a subset of patients. We aim to exploit moderate intensity ultrasound exposure along with novel therapeutics and image guidance for treating breast cancer, which could potentially enhance patient survival and quality of life.”

Prof Himanshu Shekhar, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at IITGN co-leads the Medical Ultrasound Engineering (MUSE) Laboratory. His group works in the areas of therapeutic ultrasound, nonlinear imaging, ultrasound-assisted drug delivery, and medical device development. Prof Shekhar will pursue his work under this research fellowship in collaboration with Prof Dhiraj Bhatia at IITGN and Prof Bhoomika Patel at Nirma University.