Gagandeep Kang facts for kids

Gagandeep Kang is an amazing Indian scientist. She is a microbiologist and virologist. This means she studies tiny living things like bacteria and viruses. Since 2023, she has been a leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she works on diseases that affect the stomach and intestines, especially those causing diarrhea. She also helps keep an eye on how diseases spread.

Before this, Dr. Kang was a professor at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. She also led the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute for four years. Her main work focuses on viral infections in children. She also tests rotavirus vaccines. These vaccines help protect kids from a common and serious stomach bug. She also studies other gut infections, how they affect young children, and how clean water and sanitation can help.

In 2016, she won the important Infosys Prize for her work. This award recognized her efforts to understand rotavirus and other infections. In 2019, she made history by becoming the first Indian woman to be chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists! She also helped write a book called Till We Win: India's Fight Against The COVID-19 Pandemic.

Early Life and School Days

Gagandeep Kang was born in Shimla, India, on November 3, 1962. Her mom taught English and history. Her dad was a mechanical engineer who worked for the Indian Railways. Because of her dad's job, Dr. Kang moved around a lot when she was a kid. She changed schools 10 times!

Even as a child, she loved science. When she was 12, she and her dad built a science lab at home. There, she did fun experiments in biology, physics, and chemistry. This early interest helped her become the great scientist she is today.

Becoming a Doctor and Scientist

Dr. Kang studied at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. She earned her first medical degree (MBBS) in 1987. Then, she got her MD in Microbiology in 1991. Later, she earned her PhD in 1998. She also did more research in Houston, USA, before coming back to India.

Career and Important Research

Dr. Kang is a medical scientist who has worked on diseases causing diarrhea in India since the early 1990s. She has played a big part in understanding rotavirus and creating vaccines for it in India.

Focus on Vaccines and Infections

Her research looks at vaccines, gut infections, and how nutrition affects young children. She mainly works with communities that don't have many resources. She combines studying diseases in real-life settings with detailed lab work. This helps both science and health policies in India.

Her deep research on rotavirus showed how common and serious this disease is across India. She also found that the virus has many different types. Her work explored ways to make oral vaccines work better. Because of her important work, some people call her India's "vaccine godmother."

Sharing Knowledge and Helping Others

Dr. Kang has written over 300 science papers. She has also been on the boards of many science journals. She helps review research for groups that give money for scientific studies. She has also been on many committees that give advice about vaccines. These include groups for India's national immunization program and the World Health Organization (WHO).

She also has special teaching roles at important universities in the United States. These include Johns Hopkins University and Tufts University School of Medicine.

Developing the Rotavirus Vaccine

Dr. Kang was very important in creating Rotavac. This is a vaccine from Bharat Biotech that fights diarrhea caused by rotavirus. She was one of the main scientists who led the big tests of the vaccine. These tests are called Phase III clinical trials.

Her first goal was to find out what protects people from rotavirus. She and her team worked to understand how the body fights off the virus. Even though some early studies didn't go as planned, they helped create excellent lab methods for finding rotaviruses. Dr. Kang and one of her students then developed ways to test how well vaccines work against rotavirus. These tests were used for Rotavac.

Since 2020, Dr. Kang has also been involved in efforts to create COVID-19 vaccines. She was part of a special group at the WHO. She also helped India's own efforts to make a coronavirus vaccine.

Other Important Activities

Dr. Kang is involved in several other important groups that work on global health:

• She is a member of the International Advisory Board for the Global Health Centre. This group is part of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
• She was a board member for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). This group helps prepare for and stop epidemics.
• She is a member of the Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Awards and Special Recognition

Dr. Kang has received many awards for her amazing work. She is the second Indian woman scientist ever to be chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a huge honor that has only been given to a few people in the Royal Society's 359-year history. She was also the ninth woman to receive the Infosys Prize. She is also the first Indian person and the first woman to edit a famous medical textbook called Manson's Textbook of Tropical Medicine.

Here are some of her other awards:

• 1998–1999 – Dr. P.N. Berry Fellowship
• 2005 – The Lourdu Yedanapalli Award for Excellence in Research
• 2006 – Woman Bioscientist of the Year
• 2016 – Infosys Prize in Life Sciences
• 2019 – Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• 2024 – Canada Gairdner Global Health Award