Prof. Balasubramanian Gopal, an outstanding structural biologist, and molecular biophysicist is a distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is best known for his invaluable contributions towards developing a wider understanding of the cell wall synthesis in a common gram-positive bacterium known as Staphylococcus aureus found in the human skin and respiratory tract. In the recognition of his stellar work in the field of transcription initiation and control in TB bacillus, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India conferred upon him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 2015.
Prof. Balasubramanian Gopal received his master's degree from IIT Kanpur. Shortly afterward, he started off his career with Torrent Pharmaceuticals as a biochemist at their Ahmedabad station. Later, he got inclined towards pursuing a Ph.D. and decided to take a break from his job to join the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for the same. After completing his doctoral research, he moved to the UK and joined the National Institute for Medical Research to pursue his post-doctoral studies in crystallography.
After returning to India, he joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) as a member of Lab 301 of Molecular Biophysics Unit where he and his colleagues carry out their research on mechanistic and structural aspects of membrane-associated proteins involved in transcriptional regulation, inter-cell communication and mediate antimicrobial resistance. Throughout his illustrious career, Prof. Gopal has published his extensive research findings in the form of articles in several peer-reviewed journals out of which over 77 have been listed on Google Scholar.
He has been a keynote speaker at several seminars including the Graduate Students' Meet 2007 and the 2nd International Conference on Structural and Functional Genomics organized by Sastra University at Tanjore in August 2016. Moreover, in the recognition of his stellar performance in the field of biological sciences, he has been awarded fellowships from the National Academy of Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.
