0000-0003-2956-0514 About
Dr. Madhu Bala, M.Sc., Ph.D.(Gold Medalist), is the former Director of prestigious Organization Defence Institute of Bio-energy Research (DIBER), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Uttarakhand, India, since July 2017. Under her leadership the Institute is progressing steadily in the field of bio energy and bio fuels; Bio threat mitigation; bio-resource conservation, cultivation and processing. The Institute has taken lead in developing energy as per CHP model by utilizing the forest waste. Development of green devices meant for storage of energy and packing the solid fuels is another notable achievement. Detection of deadly pathogen such as Ralstonia under filed conditions is another challenging task on which team of DIBER Scientists is working under the leadership of Dr Madhu Bala.
Presently, Dr Madhu Bala is the serving President of Indian Society for Radiation Biology. She is rendering services as an external expert to several Govt Organizations including BIS, INDIA.
Prior to joining DIBER, DRDO, Dr Madhu Bala rendered her services as Scientist ‘G’ and Additional Director at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Delhi, India; where she headed Radiation Biology Research Group at INMAS. In her long research carrier she has more than 200 research communications and 65 intellectual property rights. The Technical Know-how of one of the prophylactic herbal dermal ointment, for High altitude injuries, which was developed under her leadership, has already been Commercially licensed to a Multinational Industry and is under trials.
Dr Madhu Bala has played an important role in identifying the unique radioprotective potential of different plants of Himalayan origin such as Hippophae, Podophyllum, Rhodiola as well as of Tinospora. She has discovered radioprotective extracts from leaves of Seabuckthorn (Hippohae rhamnoides) which render more than 90% protection to the whole body irradiated with lethal doses (10 Gy 60Co-gamma-irradiated) experimental mice. A strong group of 4 scientists and 10 research scholars, were engaged in unraveling the mechanisms of radioprotection by a herbal preparation from Himalayan plant Seabuckthorn (Code Name SBL-1). The multiple mechanisms of radioprotection by SBL-1, so far understood, are up-regulation of free-radical scavenging and antioxidant enzymes; down-regulation of inflammatory cytokines; modification of Immune response, protection to GI Tract, microbiota modulation, excretory system, haemolymphoid system and neuronal system. Currently, classical as well as transcriptome analysis approaches are being developed and applied for translating the preparations into products for human applications.
Dr Madhu Bala also contributed in genome wide search for radiation responsive molecular pathways using functional genomics approach. Her studies showed up regulation of 110 genes (prominently MRX / MRN complex); and down regulation of at least 22 genes (UPR pathway) following exposure to low doses of Co60-gamma-rays, which could play a role in inducing radio-resistance. For such studies she has worked on simpler eukaryotes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae as well as human lymphocytes.
Dr Bala is the distinguished Fellow of Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists; Indian Society for Radiation Biology and Applied Zoological Research Association. Dr M. Bala has a number of awards to her credit including SPPS Distinguished Scientist Award, DRDO Technology Awards, Group Technology Award, Young Scientist Award, Thungam Vasudevan Award. Dr Bala has also served as a panelist as well as a member of the Organizing Committees of National and International Symposia and Conferences in the field of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Radiation Biology.
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