INSA Distinguished Lecture-2 Fellowship for the year 2024 under Biomolecular, Structural Biology and Drug Discovery has been awarded to Professor Jayant B Udgaonkar, Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Pune for his outstanding contribution on protein folding using a variety of biophysical approaches. His group has extensively characterized folding, unfolding and aggregation pathways of multiple proteins, including prion proteins and tau, with important implications for understanding protein misfolding-based diseases.

Jayant B. Udgaonkar obtained his BSc in chemistry from the University of Bombay, India, in 1979 and his MSc in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, in 1981. He then obtained his PhD from Cornell University in 1986, majoring in biochemistry and minoring in applied physics. His PhD research was on the functioning of the acetylcholine receptor using fast kinetic methods as well as single-channel current recording techniques. His postdoctoral work was in biochemistry at Stanford University, where he developed the NMR-detected pulsed hydrogen-exchange methodology to obtain detailed structural information on protein folding reactions. He joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India, in early 1990, being the first faculty member recruited to its new National Centre for Biological Sciences. His work has shown that proteins begin to fold via non-specific hydrophobic chain collapse, that folding occurs on competing pathways that differ structurally, that unfolding begins by chain expansion to a dry molten globule state, and that folding and unfolding reactions can occur in a completely gradual manner. His work has also led to a better understanding of how misfolding commences and how conformational conversion occurs during misfolding. In late 2017, he joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune.

Professor Udgaonkar is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), Bengaluru, and of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is also a recipient of the Birla Award in Biology (1996); Golden Jubilee Fellowship from the DBT (1997); Swarnajayanti Fellowship from the DST (1998); Senior Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust (1999-2004); SS Bhatnagar Prize (2000); JC Bose National Fellowship (2007, 2012, 2017, 2022); the GN Ramachandran Gold Medal from the CSIR (2011); and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Madras (2011). He has been awarded the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Vigyan Shri Award (2024). Thirty-one students have received their PhD under his mentorship.

Professor Jayant B Udgaonkar was elected to the Fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy in 2002.