Professor of biotechnology, Rakesh Bhatnagar has been selected as vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University. Bhatnagar has been working in the field of anthrax for the last 20 years.

According to Rajesh Singh, PRO, BHU, “We have received an e-mail intimating about the appoint of professor Rakesh Bhatnagar of Jawaharlal Nehru University as the new vice chancellor today.” 

Bhatnagar has to his credit the development of a genetically engineered vaccine against anthrax. The technology of recombinant anthrax vaccine has been transferred to Panacea Biotec Ltd. and the vaccine has successfully undergone Phase I and Phase II Human clinical trials.

Also, his research group pioneered the expression of Protective Antigen gene in a plant system, which marks the first milestone towards developing an edible vaccine against anthrax. DNA vaccine against Rabies has been developed in his laboratory and is ready for technology transfer.

Further research is being done to develop DNA vaccine against anthrax. The laboratory is also engaged in the study of programmed cell death in prokaryotes.

His research group has recently initiated research in other important infectious disease systems like Mycobacterium, Brucella; aiming to open avenues for their control.

About- Banaras Hindu University formerly Central Hindu College is a public central university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Established in 1916 by Madan Mohan Malaviya. With over 12,000 students residing on campus, it claims the title of the largest residential university in Asia.