Pururava at 15:47, 23 May 2025

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{{Short description|Indian military officer and immunologist (1930–2018)}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Kamala Balakrishnan
| image = KamalaBalakrishnan.png
| alt = The face of an older South Asian woman with short white hair. She is smiling.
| caption = Kamala Balakrishnan, from the website of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = January 16, 1930
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|8|7|1930|1|16}}
| death_place = Houston, Texas
| occupation = Military officer, medical researcher
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}

'''Kamala Balakrishnan''' (January 16, 1930 – August 7, 2018) was an Indian military officer and [[Immunology|immunologist]]. She was a lieutenant colonel in the [[Indian Armed Forces]], president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), and director of the Transplantation Immunology Division at the Paul Hoxworth Blood Center in [[Cincinnati|Cincinnati, Ohio]].

== Early life ==
Balakrishnan was born in 1930. She graduated from the [[Christian Medical College Vellore|Christian Medical College]] in [[Vellore]], and completed a diploma in [[clinical pathology]] from the [[Armed Forces Medical College (India)|Armed Forces Medical College]] at [[Pune]]. She pursued further studies in immunology at the [[University of Birmingham]], in 1967 and 1968.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chattopadhyay|first=Anjana|url=https://nbtindia.gov.in/writereaddata/freebooks/pdf/Women%20Scientists%20in%20India.pdf|title=Women Scientists in India: Lives, Struggles, and Achievements|publisher=National Book Trust of India|year=2018|isbn=978-81-237-8144-0}}</ref>

== Career ==
Balakrishnan was a [[lieutenant colonel]] and senior medical officer in the Indian Armed Forces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Directorate of Printing|first=Government of India|url=http://archive.org/details/in.gazette.1957.200|title=Gazette of India, 1957, No. 200|date=1957-02-16|pages=39|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> She established India's first [[histocompatibility]] laboratory, in [[New Delhi]]. She was awarded the Shakuntala Devi Amir Chand Award in 1971, and the Colonel Amir Chand Award in 1973, both from the [[Indian Council of Medical Research]].<ref name=":0" /> In the 1980s, she supported the work of the Bangalore Medical Services Trust, consulting on laboratory set up and personnel training for [[Blood bank|blood banks]].<ref>Bangalore Medical Services Trust, ''[https://letzchangefiles.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/9d956c47-1130-43f1-ae2d-0ae39a9e8dd5.pdf Annual Report, April 2017 to March 2018] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201015222319/https://letzchangefiles.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/9d956c47-1130-43f1-ae2d-0ae39a9e8dd5.pdf |date=2020-10-15 }}'', page 31, 33.</ref>

In the United States, Balakrishnan was president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics from 1996 to 1997.<ref>{{Cite web|title=ASHI Presidents|url=https://www.ashi-hla.org/page/ASHI_Presidents?&hhsearchterms=%22balakrishnan%22|access-date=2020-10-09|website=American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics}}</ref> From 1981 to 2001, she was director of the Transplantation Immunology Division at the Paul Hoxworth Blood Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=August 8, 2018|title=In Memoriam - Dr. Kamala Balakrishnan|url=https://www.ashi-hla.org/news/412486/In-Memoriam---Dr.-Kamala-Balakrishnan.htm|access-date=2020-10-08|website=American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Pugh|first=Tony|date=1986-06-06|title=Children's Hospital Research Shows Gene-Kidney Disease Link|pages=25|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60776438/childrens-hospital-research-shows/|access-date=2020-10-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She was a professor of [[transfusion medicine]] at the [[University of Cincinnati]],<ref name=":0" /> and contributed to research articles in academic journals including ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Welch|first1=Thomas R.|last2=Beischel|first2=Linda|last3=Balakrishnan|first3=Kamala|last4=Quinlan|first4=Monica|last5=West|first5=Clark D.|date=1986-06-05|title=Major-Histocompatibility-Complex Extended Haplotypes in Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis|url=http://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJM198606053142303|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|language=en|volume=314|issue=23|pages=1476–1481|doi=10.1056/NEJM198606053142303|pmid=3458025 |issn=0028-4793|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Lupus,''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Adams|first1=Louis E.|last2=Balakrishnan|first2=Kamala|last3=Roberts|first3=Stephen M.|last4=Belcher|first4=Rick|last5=Mongey|first5=Anne-Barbara|last6=Thomas|first6=T. J.|last7=Hess|first7=Evelyn V.|date=2016-07-02|title=Genetic, Immunologic and Biotransformation Studies of Patients on Procainamide|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/096120339300200205|journal=Lupus|volume=2|issue=2|pages=89–98|language=en|doi=10.1177/096120339300200205|pmid=8330041 |s2cid=45020391|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Nephron'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sridhar|first1=Nagaraja R.|last2=Munda|first2=Rino|last3=Balakrishnan|first3=Kamala|last4=First|first4=Roy|date=1992|title=Evaluation of Flowcytometric Crossmatching in Renal Allograft Recipients|url=https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/187056|journal=Nephron|language=en|volume=62|issue=3|pages=262–266|doi=10.1159/000187056|pmid=1436335 |issn=1660-8151|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Transfusion,''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McGill|first1=Manley|last2=Balakrishnan|first2=Kamala|last3=Meier|first3=Terry|last4=Mayhaus|first4=Charles|last5=Whitacre|first5=Lynn|last6=Greenwalt|first6=Tibor|date=1986|title=Blood product irradiation recommendations|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1537-2995.1986.26687043623.x|journal=Transfusion|language=en|volume=26|issue=6|pages=542–543|doi=10.1046/j.1537-2995.1986.26687043623.x|pmid=3775838 |s2cid=2693157|issn=1537-2995|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Immunological Investigations'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Balakrishnan|first1=Kamala|last2=Adams|first2=Louis E.|date=1995-01-01|title=The Role of the Lymphocyte in an Immune Response|url=https://doi.org/10.3109/08820139509062775|journal=Immunological Investigations|volume=24|issue=1–2|pages=233–244|doi=10.3109/08820139509062775|pmid=7713585 |issn=0882-0139|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''[[Journal of Surgical Research]],''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Johnson|first1=Christopher P.|last2=Munda|first2=Rino|last3=Balakrishnan|first3=Kamala|last4=Alexander|first4=J.Wesley|date=June 1984|title=Donor-specific blood transfusions with stored and fresh blood in a rat heart allograft model|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0022480484901380|journal=Journal of Surgical Research|language=en|volume=36|issue=6|pages=532–534|doi=10.1016/0022-4804(84)90138-0|pmid=6374290 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and ''Human Immunology''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Adams|first1=Louis E|last2=Balakrishnan|first2=Kamala|last3=Malik|first3=Shahid|last4=Mongey|first4=Anne-Barbara|last5=Whitacre|first5=Lynn|last6=Hess|first6=Evelyn V|date=March 1998|title=Genetic and Immunologic Studies of Patients on Procainamide|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0198885998000056|journal=Human Immunology|language=en|volume=59|issue=3|pages=158–168|doi=10.1016/S0198-8859(98)00005-6|pmid=9548075 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> She also contributed to a textbook, ''Transfusion Immunology and Medicine'' (1995).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Oss|first=Carel J. van|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlvPQjQ77CwC&q=Kamala+Balakrishnan+immunology&pg=PR9|title=Transfusion Immunology and Medicine|date=1995-01-27|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0-8247-9640-2|language=en}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Balakrishnan was married to a fellow military officer, Vataranyan Balakrishnan;<ref>{{Cite news|last=Webb|first=Robert|date=1984-08-02|title=New Era for Indian Villages|pages=16|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60774251/new-era-for-indian-villagesrobert-webb/|access-date=2020-10-09|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> they had two sons. She died in 2018, at a hospital in [[Houston, Texas]].<ref name=":1" /> There are photographs of Balakrishnan in the University of Cincinnati Medical School/University Hospital Public Relations Photographic Collection at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions in Cincinnati.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Finding aid for the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/University Hospital Public Relations Photographic Collection|url=http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/OhCiUWC0013.xml;chunk.id=headerlink;brand=default|access-date=2020-10-09|website=OhioLink}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balakrishnan, Kamala}}
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:Indian immunologists]]
[[Category:University of Cincinnati faculty]]
[[Category:Armed Forces Medical Services officers]]

Kamala Balakrishnan - Revision history

Pururava at 15:47, 23 May 2025