Dr. Durba Pal, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, has been awarded the prestigious Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award 2017 by The National Academy of Sciences India (NASI) for her work on ‘Role of Fetuin-A in lipid induced insulin resistance’.

Speaking about the achievement, Prof. Durba Pal, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Ropar said, “The award provides young researchers with an opportunity to promote scientific and technological research related to the problems of societal welfare”. 

Her research has successfully established that fetuin-A plays a key role in lipid-induced adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance suggesting fetuin-A could be a novel therapeutic target for the management of lipid-induced insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Speaking about her work, Prof. Durba Pal said, “Obesity is the most common cause of insulin resistance in humans, and the pervasiveness of obesity in our population is the predominant driver of the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is one of the major outcomes of chronic low-grade inflammation in insulin target tissues fuelled by free fatty acids (FFAs)”.

Her work is published in Nature Medicine Journal (2012; 18: 1279–1285), where Dr. Pal contributed as the first author. The work has also been highlighted in reputed international journals like Cell, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Immunology, Diabetes Journal, Science Signaling etc.