DMA student Devika Sirohi Made India Proud !!
Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA March 31, 2016
Devika Sirohi an alumni of Dayawati Modi Academy, Modipuram Meerut has created history. She is the only Indian & the youngest member of a team which is breaking news on all TV & media channels across the world.
Devika Sirohi is a research scholar and lecturer at Purdue University, USA pursuing her Ph.D. in Life Science. She is an alumni of Dayawati Modi Academy Meerut, pursued her graduation from Delhi University and PG from TIFT Mumbai. She has to her credit the discovery of ZIKA VIRUS structure which was boggling the scientists of the world as the most dangerous virus as dengue and was causing brain damage to unborn children too.
Devika is the youngest Indian to be the first author of the paper published in the journal ‘Science’. The team comprises Devika Sirohi, Prof. Richard J. Kuhn, Prof. Michael G. Rossmann & others at Purdue.
A disease caused by Zika virus is spread through mosquito bites. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared ‘a public health emergency of international Concern’ for Zika virus. Currently there is no treatment or vaccine available to prevent against this dangerous virus. The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites.
As per the available knowledge Zika is a flavivirus — a member of the same family as other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as dengue, West Nile and yellow fever — and its strong similarity with those better-understood viruses was confirmed in the study. However scientists are most interested in what makes Zika different.
In her research study Devika Sirohi said – “Most viruses don’t invade the nervous system or the developing fetus due to blood-brain and placental barriers, but the association with improper brain development in fetuses suggest Zika does. It is not clear how Zika gains access to these cells and infects them, but these areas of structural difference may be involved. These unique areas may be crucial and warrant further investigation.”
The revealed structure of ZIKA VIRUS has opened a new dimension of research for the scientists to study the ways ZIKA infects the healthy cells. The groundbreaking discovery reveals insights that are critical to finding an effective antiviral treatment or vaccine for the virus. The resent rapid spread of ZIKA virus and its unexpected linkage to birth defects and an autoimmune neurological syndrome has generated worldwide concern.
DMA family is proud on this specular achievement of its students. “We’re happy to see that our students are making India proud across the world. “ said the Principal Dr. Ritu Dewan. She extended her best wishes to Devika Sirohi & congratulated her parents, senior leading pathologist of Meerut Dr. S. S. Sirohi and Paediatrician Dr. Reena Sirohi.
