Dr. Lekha Pandit
K. S. Hegde Medical College, Deralakatte
Batch : 1981
Institute : KMC
Dr. Lekha Pandit, Professor of Neurology and Director of Centre for Advanced Neurological Research as K S Hegde Medical College, Deralakatte was honoured with the 2009 Jacqueline du Pre Grant from the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF), based in UK. She is the first medical practitioner from India to be the recipient of this prestigious honour. The grant is awarded based on her previous work on MS, research interest and publications.
She was also honoured with the “Multiple Schlewsws International Institution Prestigious Grant Honour”, for the year 2009. This grant named after an internationally acclaimed musician who succumbed to MS at a young age enables selected scientists working on Multiple Sclerosis from all over the world to work at a research centre of their choice for up to 6 months. She will be leaving from UK in January 2010 for a period of six months as she has been accepted as a visiting fellow of the Department of Neurology, Addenbrooke Hospital, Cambridge in UK. She will be working with Dr. Stephen Sawcer on the role of HLA in Indian MS.
Dr. Lekha’s interest in MS began in KMC Manipal when she was in the hunt for a topic to present a paper in the first national conference on Neurology held in Manipal in the 90’s. She presented her paper on MS in coastal Karnataka and since then has been carrying on her research relentlessly on this subject. She worked among MS patients in UK and worked under Dr. David Bates, who is said to be an authority in this topic. Dr. Lekha has many publications to her credit on the subject.
Pursuing her research interest in MS Dr. Lekha has entered into collaboration with Prof Jun-ichi Kira, Head of Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University in Japan to make a detailed study on the role of Angi-aquaporin antibody in the causation of inflammatory demyelinating disorder in India. Dr. Lekha is hopeful that the Mangalore chapter of MSSI would be able to render whatever little help it can for MS patients and their family members.