An Indian-origin British professor of chemistry and DNA expert at Cambridge University, had received a Knighthood along with the Olympic super stars Andy Murray and Mo Farah among others by Queen Elizabeth II.
Shankar Balasubramanian a 50 year old, Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Cambridge University, had been recognised for his work as a co-inventor of Next Generation DNA sequencing, which is described as the most advance method in biology and medicine for decades.
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"Solexa sequencing, allows one individual genome to be sequence in mostly two days at a cost of less than one thousand pounds; before, sequencing a human genome took years of hard work and costed billions of pounds. Balasubramanian’s work had spawned an entirely new discipline of Bioinformatics."
"Most recently, he had made a major contribution into understanding the character of DNA-quadruplexes in cancer and invented a method for the sequencing of epigenetic modifications," his citation reads.
Andy Murray, Farah and British track and field athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill are among the others who were honoured Knighthood in the 2017 New Year Honours list, which also includes big names in the world of Entertainment, including actor Mark Rylance and Patricia Routledge.
Rio 2016 men's tennis champion Andy Murray and double gold-winning athlete Farah receive Knighthoods, while heptathlete Ennis-Hill becomes a Dame.
Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands for parliamentary and political service, Ravindra Pragji Govindia of Wandsworth Borough Council for services to local government and the community in Wandsworth, London and Anita Thapar from the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University for services to child and adolescent psychiatry are also included in the list.
- AMandeep