| Govindarajan Padmanaban | |
| Birth Date: | 20 March 1938 |
| Birth Place: | Madras, India |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Fields: | Biochemistry |
| Workplaces: | Indian Institute of Science St Mary's Hospital Medical School University of Chicago |
| Alma Mater: | University of Madras Indian Institute of Science Indian Agricultural Research Institute |
| Doctoral Advisor: | P. S. Sarma |
| Known For: | Molecular Parasitology |
| Prizes: | Vigyan Ratna Award (2024) Padma Bhushan (2003) Padma Shri (1991) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1983) |
Govindarajan Padmanaban (born 20 March 1938, in Madras) is an Indian biochemist and biotechnologist. He was the former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and presently serves as honorary professor in the department of biochemistry at IISc and Chancellor of Central University of Tamil Nadu.[1]
Padmanaban was brought up in a family of engineers. He belongs to Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu but had settled in Bangalore. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Madras and master's degree in Soil Chemistry at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 1966.[2]
In the early years of his research, he primarily worked in the transcriptional regulation of Eukaryotic genes in the liver. He was interested in elucidating the multifaceted role of heme in cellular processes. His group discovered the heme-biosynthetic pathway in the malarial parasite and showed it to be a drug target. He has also been interested in the area of vaccine development. His team was successful in showing the antimalarial property of Curcumin and its efficacy in combination therapy in 2004.[3]