India’s Dr Kamal Ranadive was an Indian biomedical researcher known for her studies on cancer and the links between cancers and viruses. She died in 2001 at the age of 89. The Indian Women Scientists’ Association was founded by her.
At the Indian Cancer Research Centre in Mumbai, she founded India’s first tissue culture research laboratory in the 1960s.
Early Life
On November 8th, 1917, Kamal was born in Pune, Maharashtra. Dattatreya Samarath and Shantabai Dinarath were her parents. At Fergusson College, Pune, her father was a professor of biological sciences. The education of his children was a priority for him. Kamal was a talented student who had a bright future ahead of him. The Huzurpaga: H.H.C.P. High School was where she went to school. Her father wanted her to go to medical school and marry a doctor, but she opted to go against his wishes and study instead.
In her first year at Fergusson College, she concentrated on Botany and Zoology. When she graduated from college in 1934, she was awarded a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) with honors. [5] For her master’s degree (M.Sc.) at the Agriculture College at Pune, she focused on the cytogenetics of annonaceae. As a result of this union, she relocated to Mumbai in 1939 to begin a new life with the mathematician husband she had previously married on May 13. Anil Jaysingh was the name of the couple’s only child.
She worked at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Bombay (now known as Mumbai). During her post-graduate studies in Cytology, her spouse Ranadive proved to be an invaluable source of support.
She also studied on her doctoral degree (Doctor of Philosophy) at Bombay University when she was in India.. V. R. Khanolkar, a renowned pathologist and the founder of the Indian Cancer Research Centre, was her mentor and mentor (ICRC).
Dr. Khanolkar urged her to apply for an American fellowship when she obtained her PhD from the University of Bombay in 1949. Tissue culture techniques and working with George Gey, the inventor of the HeLa cell line, were the goals of her postdoctoral research position at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Professional career
As soon as she returned to India, Kamal rejoined the International Committee of the Red Cross as a Senior Research Officer. Bombay’s Experimental Biology and Tissue Culture Laboratories were founded by her.
The Indian Cancer Research Centre had an acting director from 1966 to 1970, when she acquired the role.
When she was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, she created tissue culture media and related reagents in the early 1960s along with her helpers in biology and chemistry. Carcinogenesis, cell biology, and immunology were all new study areas that she established. Cancer pathophysiology studies in animals led to a better understanding of diseases like leukemia, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer. Her career accomplishments include research in this area.
Furthermore, researchers have discovered a link between cancer susceptibility and hormones and the tumor virus. After studying the germs that cause leprosy, she developed a leprosy vaccination. On the area of cancer research in particular, she was a huge inspiration to Indian women scientists. “Immunohematology of Tribal Blood,” a study of babies, was one such project.
Special studies
A study on the “Comparative morphology of normal mammary glands of four strains of mice varied in their susceptibility to breast cancer” was published by Kamal while she was employed with Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Bombay (later known as Cancer Research Centre)[9].
A report on the investigations of breast cancer that had received special attention was published in February 1945. She tried to link the disease’s progression to factors such as inheritance, childbirth, and histological structure.
In particular, she focused on childhood cancers with a hereditary component and conditions of the blood known as dyscrasias.
Tribal youngsters in the Akola taluk of Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district were the focus of Kamal’s and her team’s research in 1989, when they collected data on their nutritional status.
As part of a government-sponsored programme under the Indian Women Association, Kamal gave health and medical advice to women in rural communities surrounding Rajpur and Ahmednagar, as well.
Awards and honours
For his contributions to medicine, Kamal received the Padma Bhushan (India’s third highest civilian honor) in 1982.
The Medical Council of India presented her with the first Silver Jubilee Research Award in 1964.
With this prize, the recipient received an honorary gold medal, as well as an award of $15,000 in cash (equivalent to 930,000 or US$12,000 in 2020).
[15] The G. J. Watumull Foundation Prize for 1964 in microbiology also went to her. [16]
At the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), she served as an Emeritus Medical Scientist (ICMR).
It was Ranadive’s 104th birthday on 8 November 2021 when she received a Google Doodle.