Dr Kamal Ranadive Birthday, an Indian biomedical researcher who studied the relationships between cancer and viruses, was born on November 8, 1917. She was a member of the Indian Women’s Association from the very beginning.
Ranadive was among the first researchers in India to propose a relationship between breast cancer and genetics, as well as to find correlations between cancers and particular viruses, as the director of the ICRC and a pioneer in animal modelling of cancer development. Ranadive worked on vaccination for Mycobacterium leprae, the bacteria that causes leprosy. The Indian Women Scientists’ Association (IWSA) was created by Dr Ranadive and 11 colleagues in 1973 to support women in scientific professions.
Kamal Samarath, or Kamal Ranadive, was born in the Indian city of Pune in 1917. Her father wanted her to pursue a medical degree, but Ranadive discovered she was more interested in biology. While working as a researcher at the Indian Cancer Research Center, she got a doctorate in cytology, the study of cells, in 1949. (ICRC). She returned to Mumbai (then Bombay) and the ICRC after completing a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she founded the country’s first tissue culture laboratory.
Dr Ranadive returned to rural Maharashtra after retiring in 1989, where she trained women as healthcare workers and provided health and nutrition education. The IWSA now has 11 branches in India and offers scholarships and childcare to women in science, according to a statement from Google.
To commemorate Dr Kamal Ranadive’s 104th birthday, Google released a doodle on Monday. Ranadive is most recognised for her revolutionary cancer research and commitment to using science and education to make the world a fairer place to live in. Dr Ranadive is shown gazing through a microscope in the doodle by India-based artist Ibrahim Rayintakath.