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{{short description|Indian immunologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Indira Nath
| image = 
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1938|01|14}}
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| residence = New Delhi, India
| citizenship = India
| nationality = Indian
| fields = [[Immunology]]
| workplaces = [[All India Institute of Medical Sciences]], [[The National Academy of Sciences, India|National Academy of Sciences]], India
| alma_mater = AIIMS, Delhi
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for = Immunology research, Leprosy eradication in India
| author_abbrev_bot =
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| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = [[Padma Shri]],
[[L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science|L'Oreal-UNESCO award for Women in Science]]
[[Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award]]
| signature_alt =
| footnotes =
| native_name =
}}
'''Indira Nath''' (born 14 January 1938) is an Indian [[immunology|immunologist]]. Her major contribution in medical science deals with mechanisms underlying immune unresponsiveness in man, reactions and nerve damage in [[leprosy]] and a search for markers for viability of the [[Mycobacterium leprae|Leprosy bacillus]]. Prof. Nath's fields of specialisations are [[Immunology]], [[Pathology]], Medical biotechnology and [[communicable diseases]].<ref name="Indian Fellow - Indira Nath">{{Cite web |url=https://insaindia.res.in/detail/N92-1095 |title=Indian Fellow - Indira Nath |publisher=Indian National Science Academy |access-date=10 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Simply a class apart |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lf/2002/03/17/stories/2002031701060200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051015031430/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/lf/2002/03/17/stories/2002031701060200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 October 2005 |date= 17 Mar 2002 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=11 March 2013}}</ref>

==Career==
Nath received her MBBS from [[AIIMS, New Delhi|All India Institute of Medical Sciences]] ([[AIIMS]]), New Delhi. She joined [[AIIMS]] as MD (pathology) after mandatory hospital training in the UK. During the 1970s, India has the world's largest number of [[leprosy]] patients in the world of 4.5 million.<ref name=FAT>{{cite web|title=FAT|url=http://www.wewit.in/content/professor-indira-nath|access-date=10 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209100537/http://wewit.in/content/professor-indira-nath|archive-date=9 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1970 Nath was in the UK with a Nuffield Fellowship. During this period she came to specialise in immunology. She worked in the area of infectious diseases, particularly leprosy, with Professor John Turk at the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]] and Dr RJW Rees at the [[National Institute for Medical Research]], London.

She saw the importance of getting experience abroad but did not want to add to the brain drain out of India. She and her husband made a pact to return to India after 3 years abroad. She returned to India in the early 1970s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Birmingham|first=Karen|date=2002-06-01|title=Indira Nath|journal=Nature Medicine|language=en|volume=8|issue=6|pages=545|doi=10.1038/nm0602-545|pmid=12042793|s2cid=30023193|issn=1546-170X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

“Still, it was quite an exciting time to come back because you felt you could really play a role in building up research,” she said in an interview published on Nature Medicine in 2002.<ref name=":0" />

After coming back to India, she joined Professor [[Gursaran Talwar]]'s Department of Biochemistry at AIIMS, which had just initiated immunology research in India. Later in 1980 she moved to the Department of Pathology and she founded and established [http://www.aiims.edu/aiims/departments/Biotechnology/biotechintro.htm Department Biotechnology] (1986) at [[AIIMS]]. She retired in 1998 but continued to work at AIIMS as INSA-SN Bose Research Professor.

She was one of 100 scientists gathered by Rajiv Gandhi when he became Prime Minister to make suggestions to improve Indian science.<ref name=":0" />

She received DSc from [[Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University|Pierre and Marie Curie University]], Paris in the 2002. She was invited for the post of Dean of [[AIMST University]] in Malaysia and also as Director of Blue Peter Research Centre (Lepra Research Centre), Hyderabad.

==Research==
Her research is focused on the cellular immune responses in human leprosy as well as nerve damage in the disease. Her work has also looked for indicators of the leprosy bacillus surviving.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=June 2016|title=In Conversation - Interview with Dr. Indira Nath|url=http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/34339|journal=Science Reporter |volume=53 |issue=6 |language=en-US|issn=0036-8512}}</ref> She has over 120 publications, invited reviews, opinion/comments on recent developments in international journals. Her discovery and her pioneering work are a significant step towards the development of treatment and vaccines for leprosy.

== On Leprosy ==
In a televised interviewed in the programme Eureka by India's state TV Doordashan, Indira said that the stigma around leprosy never affected her. She also mentions that the leprosy bug doesn't kill, calling it a clever bug that just wants to survive peacefully in the body. "So we should look at it kindly." She said: "Leprosy is in fact not infectious at all. In fact, cold, flu etc are much more infectious. The leprosy big grows very slowly and it doesn't enter very quickly. The incubation period takes years." It is the nerve damage and the deformities you see on the body frightens patients, she adds.<ref>{{Citation|last=Rajya Sabha TV|title=Eureka with Indira Nath|date=2014-02-14|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvw--vqJYCk|access-date=2019-02-16}}</ref>

Thanks to World Health Organization (WHO)'s introduction of Multi Drug Therapy introduced in India in 1982, the disease incidence in the country saw a reduction from a prevalence rate of 57.8/10,000 in 1983 to less than 1/10,000 by the end of 2005 when India declared to have reached the WHO target of elimination as a public health problem.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rao|first1=P. Narasimha|last2=Suneetha|first2=Sujai|date=2018|title=Current Situation of Leprosy in India and its Future Implications|journal=Indian Dermatology Online Journal|volume=9|issue=2|pages=83–89|doi=10.4103/idoj.IDOJ_282_17|issn=2229-5178|pmc=5885632|pmid=29644191}}</ref> Contributions of scientists like Indira have been instrumental in this progress.

==Awards==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year of award or honour !! Name of award or honour !! Awarding organisation
|-
| 2003
| Silver Banner
| Tuscanny, Italy
|-
| 2003
| Chevalier Ordre National du Merite
| Government of France
|-
| 2002
| [[L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science|Women in Science (Asia Pacific)award]]
| L'Oreal UNESCO
|-
| 1999
| [[Padmashri]]<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref>
| Government of India
|-
| 1995
| RD Birla Award
|
|-
| 1995
| Cochrane Research Award
| UK Government
|-
| 1994
| Basanti Devi Amir Chand Award
| ICMR
|-
| 1990
| Om Prakash Bhasin Award
|
|-
| 1988
| Clayton Memorial Lecture Award
|
|-
| 1987
| 1st Nitya Anand Endowment Lecture Award
| INSA
|-
| 1984
| Kshanika Award
| ICMR
|-
| 1983
| [[Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology|Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award]]
| Government of India
|-
| 1981
| JALMA Trust Oration
| ICMR
|}

==Honours==
She was elected Fellow of the [[National Academy of Sciences, India]], Allahabad (1988), [[Indian Academy of Sciences]], Bangalore (1990),<ref>{{cite web |title=Fellow Profile |url=http://www.ias.ac.in/php/fell_detail.php3?name=Indira&intials=&year=14-01-1938 |publisher= [[Indian Academy of Sciences]] }}</ref> [[Indian National Science Academy]] (INSA; 1992),<ref>The Year Book 2014 // Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi</ref> [[National Academy of Medical Sciences]]<ref name="List of Fellows - NAMS">{{cite web | url=http://www.nams-india.in/downloads/fellowsmembers/ZZ.pdf | title=List of Fellows - NAMS | publisher=National Academy of Medical Sciences | date=2016 | access-date=19 March 2016}}</ref> (India) (1992), Royal College of Pathology (1992) and the [[Academy of Sciences for the Developing World]] ([[TWAS]]) (1995). She was Member, Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, [[Foreign Secretary (India)|Foreign Secretary]] INSA (1995–97), Council Member (1992–94, 1998-2006) and Vice President (2001–03) of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, and Chairperson, Women Scientists Programme, Department of Science and technology, India (2003).

She was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] by [[Government of India]] in 1999,<ref>{{cite web|title=Padma Awards Directory (1954–2009) |publisher=[[Ministry of Home Affairs (India)|Ministry of Home Affairs]] |url=http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/LST-PDAWD.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510095705/http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/LST-PDAWD.pdf |archive-date=10 May 2013 }}</ref> and [[L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science]] in 2002 and several other awards (see table above)<ref>[http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00001 Philanthropy: Award & Fellowships, 2002] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302111801/http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008%2F00001 |date=2013-03-02 }} L'Oréal.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Timeline of women in science]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Science & Engineering}}
{{SSBPST recipients in Medical Science}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nath, Indira}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from Delhi]]
[[Category:Indian immunologists]]
[[Category:Indian pathologists]]
[[Category:Bengali scientists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering]]
[[Category:L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian scientists]]
[[Category:Indian medical academics]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology]]
[[Category:All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi faculty]]
[[Category:All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:National Institute for Medical Research faculty]]
[[Category:Indian women biologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian biologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the National Academy of Medical Sciences]]
[[Category:Women pathologists]]
[[Category:Indian women medical doctors]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian medical doctors]]
[[Category:Indian women medical researchers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:Women scientists from Delhi]]
[[Category:20th-century women physicians]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Medical Science]]

Indira Nath - Revision history

>Scorpions13256 at 03:55, 10 July 2021