Srinagar born doctor receives ACS’s ‘Heroes of Chemistry Award’

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 23: Dr Anil Koul, the son of soil from Kashmir, has received this year’s American Chemical Society’s (ACS) ‘Her-oes of Che-mistry Award’ for discovery of Bedaquiline (BDQ).
BDQ is the first treatment discovered in more than 40 years for drug resistant-TB and till date has been accessed by about 210,000 patients in 141 countries. The other members of his team who were recognized for this contribution are Dr Koen Andries and Dr Jerome Guillemont.
ACS is a one of America’s biggest non-profit organization chartered by the US Congress and this award recognizes scientists whose innovative work lead to products that benefit the world.
Dr Koul was born in Bana Mohalla, Srinagar, Kashmir in year 1972 and finished his school (Hindu High school) in valley itself. He was lately appointed director of India’s prestigious Research Institute, Institute of Microbial Technology (IMtech) at Chandigarh, which is part of council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR), Government of India. Currently, he heads global public health discovery research at J&J and is also a professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
This award for him is actually recognition to the outstanding work of his fantastic team of scientists at J&J, along with some of our amazing external collaborators/partners as well as number TB patients and doctors who made this a great success story.