Kamala Balakrishnan Explained

Kamala Balakrishnan
Birth Date:January 16, 1930
Death Date:August 7, 2018
Death Place:Houston, Texas
Occupation:Military officer, medical researcher

Kamala Balakrishnan (January 16, 1930 – August 7, 2018) was an Indian military officer and 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, Ohio.

Early life

Balakrishnan was born in 1930. She graduated from the Christian Medical College in Vellore, and completed a diploma in clinical pathology from the Armed Forces Medical College at Pune. She pursued further studies in immunology at the University of Birmingham, in 1967 and 1968.[1]

Career

Balakrishnan was a lieutenant colonel and senior medical officer in the Indian Armed Forces.[2] 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. In the 1980s, she supported the work of the Bangalore Medical Services Trust, consulting on laboratory set up and personnel training for blood banks.[3]

In the United States, Balakrishnan was president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics from 1996 to 1997.[4] From 1981 to 2001, she was director of the Transplantation Immunology Division at the Paul Hoxworth Blood Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.[5] [6] She was a professor of transfusion medicine at the University of Cincinnati, and contributed to research articles in academic journals including The New England Journal of Medicine,[7] Lupus,[8] Nephron,[9] Transfusion,[10] Immunological Investigations,[11] Journal of Surgical Research,[12] and Human Immunology.[13] She also contributed to a textbook, Transfusion Immunology and Medicine (1995).[14]

Personal life

Balakrishnan was married to a fellow military officer, Vataranyan Balakrishnan;[15] they had two sons. She died in 2018, at a hospital in Houston, Texas. 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.[16]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Chattopadhyay, Anjana. Women Scientists in India: Lives, Struggles, and Achievements. National Book Trust of India. 2018. 978-81-237-8144-0.
  2. Book: Directorate of Printing, Government of India. Gazette of India, 1957, No. 200. 1957-02-16. 39. Internet Archive.
  3. Bangalore Medical Services Trust, Annual Report, April 2017 to March 2018, page 31, 33.
  4. Web site: ASHI Presidents. 2020-10-09. American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
  5. Web site: August 8, 2018. In Memoriam - Dr. Kamala Balakrishnan. 2020-10-08. American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
  6. News: Pugh. Tony. 1986-06-06. Children's Hospital Research Shows Gene-Kidney Disease Link. 25. The Cincinnati Enquirer. 2020-10-09. Newspapers.com.
  7. Welch. Thomas R.. Beischel. Linda. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Quinlan. Monica. West. Clark D.. 1986-06-05. Major-Histocompatibility-Complex Extended Haplotypes in Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis. New England Journal of Medicine. en. 314. 23. 1476–1481. 10.1056/NEJM198606053142303. 3458025 . 0028-4793.
  8. Adams. Louis E.. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Roberts. Stephen M.. Belcher. Rick. Mongey. Anne-Barbara. Thomas. T. J.. Hess. Evelyn V.. 2016-07-02. Genetic, Immunologic and Biotransformation Studies of Patients on Procainamide. Lupus. 2. 2. 89–98. en. 10.1177/096120339300200205. 8330041 . 45020391.
  9. Sridhar. Nagaraja R.. Munda. Rino. Balakrishnan. Kamala. First. Roy. 1992. Evaluation of Flowcytometric Crossmatching in Renal Allograft Recipients. Nephron. en. 62. 3. 262–266. 10.1159/000187056. 1436335 . 1660-8151.
  10. McGill. Manley. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Meier. Terry. Mayhaus. Charles. Whitacre. Lynn. Greenwalt. Tibor. 1986. Blood product irradiation recommendations. Transfusion. en. 26. 6. 542–543. 10.1046/j.1537-2995.1986.26687043623.x. 3775838 . 2693157. 1537-2995.
  11. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Adams. Louis E.. 1995-01-01. The Role of the Lymphocyte in an Immune Response. Immunological Investigations. 24. 1–2. 233–244. 10.3109/08820139509062775. 7713585 . 0882-0139.
  12. Johnson. Christopher P.. Munda. Rino. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Alexander. J.Wesley. June 1984. Donor-specific blood transfusions with stored and fresh blood in a rat heart allograft model. Journal of Surgical Research. en. 36. 6. 532–534. 10.1016/0022-4804(84)90138-0. 6374290 .
  13. Adams. Louis E. Balakrishnan. Kamala. Malik. Shahid. Mongey. Anne-Barbara. Whitacre. Lynn. Hess. Evelyn V. March 1998. Genetic and Immunologic Studies of Patients on Procainamide. Human Immunology. en. 59. 3. 158–168. 10.1016/S0198-8859(98)00005-6. 9548075 .
  14. Book: Oss, Carel J. van. Transfusion Immunology and Medicine. 1995-01-27. CRC Press. 978-0-8247-9640-2. en.
  15. News: Webb. Robert. 1984-08-02. New Era for Indian Villages. 16. The Cincinnati Enquirer. 2020-10-09. Newspapers.com.
  16. Web site: Finding aid for the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/University Hospital Public Relations Photographic Collection. 2020-10-09. OhioLink.

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