Help for the Developing World

September 2007 • Vol. 86: No. 4 : Closeups

Now head of an international research center, chemist Virander Chauhan got his start at UGA.

Caitlin Cox (BS, '00)

In May, at the height of New Delhi’s scorching summer, the sun makes its impact by mid-morning. But for the half-dozen graduate students who showed up for work early on a Saturday, the malaria research group lab at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) provided a shady refuge.

“Dr. Chauhan’s research is very closely tied to many of our research endeavors in infectious diseases and the development of vaccines.” -Arnett Mace, Provost

Under the guidance of scientist Virander Chauhan, director of ICGEB’s New Delhi institute, they clustered around computers and hunched over lab benches lined with brightly-colored bottles. The room’s open layout, so unlike the segmented spaces common to many laboratories, encourages teamwork.

Chauhan, who grew up in India, began his career as a postdoctoral fellow at UGA’s Department of Chemistry. Chauhan had met UGA chemistry professor Charles Stammer, now emeritus, in Oxford, where Chauhan was a Rhodes Scholar and Stammer was on sabbatical. At Stammer’s request, Chauhan came to UGA and studied peptides—chains of amino acids that are the basis of proteins—and explored how to recreate those complex, three-dimensional shapes.

“I picked up the threads of things which Dr. Stammer wanted to do and never looked back. In fact, even now I do a lot of work based on my initial [research],” says Chauhan, who after 30 years still sometimes sends reprints of his latest papers to his mentor. “When I sent him [one] last, he said, ‘My God, where have you taken this field?’”

Today Chauhan continues this tradition of mentorship. Shaheena Parween, a graduate student who arrived at the institute six months earlier, is investigating with Chauhan how peptides can organize themselves into useful structures, especially nanotubes. Such structures may someday become ingredients in new drugs. “He wants us to be scientists, not just workers or technicians,” she says. “We have the freedom to think and implement ideas.”

Chauhan’s other research aims to understand the mechanisms behind malarial drugs and to develop vaccines that can prevent the disease. After working for more than a decade, he and his colleagues have created an antimalarial vaccine that will soon enter its first clinical trials. Notably, the trials will be conducted onsite in India. According to the World Health Organization, the country reported nearly 1.8 million cases of malaria in 2003, of which 990 were fatal.

This scenario embodies ICGEB’s mission to advance research and training that are relevant to the needs of the developing world. “ICGEB stands out because it was built at a time when there was a feeling in the developing world that biotechnology would surge ahead and the poor countries would have no access to technologies. And even if they had access, they wouldn’t have the manpower to deal with it,” he explains.

First launched in the early 1980s, the ICGEB, an autonomous organization, now has over 50 member countries from the developing world, ranging from China and Argentina to Iran and Nigeria. Its two main facilities are located in India and Italy, the organization’s host countries.

In the spirit of ICGEB’s global reach, Chauhan hopes to reconnect with UGA; he currently has ties with Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At UGA, he is especially interested in learning more about the potential for sugar-based vaccines from Geert-Jan Boons, Franklin professor of chemistry at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center.

Vaccines made in the lab from synthetic carbohydrates could offer new routes for fighting infectious diseases, such as meningitis or HIV, which are caused by microorganisms whose sugar-based shells help shield them from the body’s immune system.

“Dr. Chauhan’s research is very closely tied to many of our research endeavors in infectious diseases and the development of vaccines,” says UGA Provost Arnett Mace. “His pioneering research provides an opportunity for collaboration with scientists in our Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and Center for Global and Infectious Diseases. We look forward to increased collaboration.”

Chauhan also has personal reasons for wanting to revisit his time in Athens. He hopes that when he travels to the city later this year, he can introduce his wife, a professor of English literature, to his favorite haunts. One of his most vivid memories is jogging on Riverbend Road in preparation for the Peachtree Road Race. He wants to show her the university’s running track, not to mention his old lab.

(top) At his laboratory in New Delhi, Virander Chauhan continues the research he began years ago as a postdoctoral fellow in UGA's Department of Chemistry. Photo by Pablo Bartholomew/Netphotograph

For more information, visit the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at www.icgeb.trieste.it

Find out the latest happenings at the UGA Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at