Gundu Hirisave Rama Rao



Gundu Hirisave Rama Rao is an Indian scientist, entrepreneur and Emeritus Professor at the Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota in the United States. He and Professor John Eaton visited India in 1981 under a National Science Foundation sponsorship (travel grant), to explore opportunities for collaborative research projects. They visited medical institutions from Kashmir in the north to Trivandrum in the south. He again visited India during 1990–93, as a professor and a senior consultant for the government of India under a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) called TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He is a member of the Minneapolis University Rotary Club. He is listed as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in the Roster. He is an active member of Rotary E-Club, RI.3190, Bangalore, India.

He is the founder of the South Asian Society on Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis and AayuSmart LLC, an IT-supported web-based health management company. He has been actively involved in creating awareness and developing educational and preventive programs to prevent non-communicable disease such as hypertension, obesity, metabolic diseases, type 2 diabetes, vascular diseases, and stroke. Dr. Rao has spent close to 40 years in Minnesota. Currently, he lives in Maryland with his wife, two children, and three grandchildren, and spends half of his time in India, developing collaborative projects related to improving health care.

Early life
Gundu Rao was born in Tumkur, Karnataka, India, on August 23, 1937. His ancestors on his father's side hailed from Hirisave (Hassan District) and on his mother's side from Thimmasandra, a small village 20 miles from Tumkur. He did his primary education in Hindu Gurukula. He did his middle school education at Government Western Middle School and Old Middle School near the District Courts. He graduated from Government High School in 1953. He studied at the Government First Grade College and obtained his BSc degree in Chemistry, Botany, and Zoology in 1957. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Zoology (1958) and MSc in Entomology (1959) from Pune University.

Early career in India
He worked at the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control, Bangalore, for almost two years. During this time he spent 8 months at Dalhousie (Himachal Pradesh) collecting and breeding ladybird beetles for export to the USA. That was the year when the Dalai Lama came to India via Dalhousie. He spent a few months in the hill station Coonoor working on pests of tea. After resigning from this Institute, he worked in the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore for five years (1960–65) on problems related to the control of pests that infest food products. During this period, he was a recipient of junior and senior research fellowships of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Since various administrative complications prevented recognition of his work towards a PhD program, he left for the US to obtain a PhD degree.

Early career in USA
He studied for his PhD in Agriculture Entomology at the Kansas State University and specialized in Grain Science Technology. He did a year of post-doctoral work in the Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, (1969), on problems related to isolation and purification of polyhedral virus (6). He joined the University of Minnesota in 1970 as a faculty in the Department of Entomology, Fisheries and Wildlife. He worked on the isolation and characterization of fungal toxins (10,11). He joined Marion Andrews in the Department of Pharmacology in 1971 and worked on drug metabolizing enzymes (12,13).

In 1972 he started working with James G. White in the Department of Pediatrics, who was working on the morphology and ultrastructure of blood platelets. He collaborated with White on platelet physiology and pharmacology for over three decades and published over 200 articles on the subject in peer-reviewed journals. He shared as co-investigator NIH research grants for over 3 decades including the NIH MERIT award (R37) for ten years (1982–92). Independent of this collaboration, he also was the recipient of two NIH/STTR grants for the development of Point-of-Care medical devices (Detection of aspirin resistance in human subjects: 1R41HL081979-01 and Detection bacteria in blood bags: 1R41 HL079854-01).

He spent a summer in King's College London, in the Department of Surgery with Prof. Vijay Kakkar in 1988 (130 ). The following summer he visited the Department of Biochemistry, Royal College of Surgeons, and worked with Prof Neville Crawford (117). In the summer of 1989, he visited Thrombosis Research Institute, Chelsea, London and worked again with Prof. Kakkar's group. In the summer of 1992, he taught at the Institute of Human Physiology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy(157). In the early 1990s, he recommended the following institutions in India for recognition by the International Federation of Cardiologists as centers of excellence in thrombosis: G.B Panth Hospital, New Delhi,Post Graduate Institute (PGI) of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh, PGI Lucknow, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Institute,KEM Hospital, Mumbai, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Bangalore.

University of Minnesota
He visited India in 1981 with John W Eaton, Professor of Molecular Anthropology at, the University of Minnesota to explore opportunities to establish Collaborative programs. During this visit to India, he visited Medical Institutions in Mumbai (Hematology and Genetics), Delhi (AIIMS, Malaria Research Institute), Chandigarh (PGI), Srinagar (Medical College: high altitude physiology), Hyderabad (Genetics), Chennai (PGI, Taramani), Vellore (Christian Medical College) and Bangalore (Indian Institute of Science).

As an international adviser to the Office of the International Programs, University of Minnesota, he suggested the following Medical institutions in India and Nepal for student and faculty exchange programs: Tribhuvan University, Nepal, PGI, Chandigarh, Escort Heart Institute, New Delhi, PGI Lucknow, Institute of Immuno-hematology, Mumbai, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Sri Chitra Tiruanl Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum. He also recommended the following individuals for an honorary professorship in International Health at the University of Minnesota: Dr. Naresh Trehan (Escort Heart Institute, New Delhi), Dr. Dipika Mohanty (Institute of Immuno-hematology, Mumbai), DR Prabhudev (Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Bangalore), Dr. Mohandas (Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences, Trivandrum), Dr. Ramdas Pai ( Manipal Academy, Manipal).

As a Rotarian he has developed matching grants from Minneapolis/University Club USD 25,000.00, to improve the educational activities of TTK/Rotary Blood Bank in Bangalore, India. He also raised a similar amount from Rotary International, to improve the Clinical facility at Jnana Sanjeevini Diabetes Clinic, Bangalore. Now that he is on a phased retirement at the University of Minnesota, he spends 4 months a year in Bangalore, India developing collaborative programs to improve drug development, medical devices development, and IT-supported health care.

International Activities
He visited India in 1990, 91, and 92 under the TOKTEN program as a senior consultant to the Government of India. During these visits, he spent time at the G. B. Pant Hospital, Maulana Abdul Kalam Medical College, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Institute of Immuno-hematology, King Edward Medical Hospital, Mumbai; King George Hospital, and Post Graduate Institute, Lucknow; Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad; Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, Sri. Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore; Sri Chitra Tiruanl Institute For Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum.

Prevention of Diabetes and Heart Disease
His visits to India under the TOKTEN program for three years in a row, made him aware of the very high incidence of Type-2 diabetes and Coronary Artery Disease in South Asians. With seed money of US$10, 000 from the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, USA, he started a professional Society called The South Asian Society for Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis (SASAT) in Minnesota to create awareness and develop educational and preventive programs for the prevention of these diseases in South Asians. He has been organizing international conferences on Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis, in India (Mumbai 1994, Bangalore 1996, New Delhi 1998, Mumbai 2000, Chennai 2002, Hyderabad 2004, Bangalore 2008, New Delhi 2007, 2008). He has published four books under the aegis of SASAT in India. He has raised more than a million dollars for the education and research activities of SASAT in India. SASAT has given awards to clinicians, researchers, teachers, and accomplished healthcare professionals in India (www.sasat.org).

Current activities
Currently, he is working with three major professional societies as a scientific adviser: South Asian Society on Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis, North American Thrombosis Forum and International Union of Angiology. He is working on regulatory issues related to outsourcing of generic drugs, and issues related to characterization and development of biologics or bio-similars. He is also working on establishing a platform in India to develop biomarker assays for the early detection of cancer and cardiovascular diseases and handheld medical devices for monitoring these assays. Another area of interest is the development of indigenous drugs and cost-effective self-diagnostic medical devices. To accomplish these goals he established a company in Bengaluru: aayusmart (www.aayusmart.com). For the first time anywhere in the world this company is trying to provide access to individuals' health records via the web (mobile personal health records: mPHRs). The company is also developing electronic alerts for patient safety, or quality assessment of medical care, and a robust workplace wellness program to improve the individual's overall health.

He is also an Honorary Professor at Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala State, India, Sri Devaraj Medical Academy and Research Centre (Deemed University), Kolar, Karnataka State, India, JSS Academy (Deemed University), Mysore, Karnataka State, India, RV Engineering and Dental Colleges, Bangalore, Karnataka, India and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He is a Scientific Adviser to Genelon Life Sciences, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, Stellixir Biotechnologies, Peenya Industrial Estate, Bengaluru. He also serves as the Technology Adviser to the Medical Device Development Group of the National Design Research Forum (NDRF), Institute of Engineers, Bengaluru

Future Goals
Future goals include the development of a large database on this diverse ethnic group, develop a mobile diagnostic platform with the v-sat capability to reach the rural community, and improving the connectivity of the healthcare providers at 600 districts and 33,000 primary healthcare facilities with the cost-effective diagnostic platform and a web-based consulting service. Diagnosis of diseases also will necessitate the need for cost-effective treatment plans. Serious considerations will be given to develop a total integrative health management to cover the largest section of society. One example of simplification that we are contemplating is to develop the capability to do all the blood chemistry on a cell phone-like platform so that data could be obtained with a drop of blood, stored, and transmitted to a web-based consulting platform or a personal physician for further interpretation and advice. Similarly, we could also include on such a mobile platform diagnostic capability to monitor the pulse flow of the blood in regional vascular beds or to monitor the heart rate, EKG (ECG) blood oxygen, and various other parameters. By exploring these avenues we will be able to bring the clinic to the individual instead of an individual going to the clinic for normal risk factor detection and management.

Another area of interest is the creation of awareness and education of the individuals. Indian Space Research Organization has a dedicated satellite (EDUSAT). They have connected tele-terminals to more than 10, 000 colleges. This vast network could be used for educational purposes for a nominal cost. Using the SASAT platform, he is planning to create a wide educational network.

India is ranked number one in the list of nations with the highest incidence of Type-2 diabetes. There are more than 30 million adults who suffer from this disease. There are equal numbers of people who have the disease and have not been diagnosed. To add to this complexity millions of individuals are in pre-diabetic condition. According to WHO estimate this number will increase by 200% in the next decade. Individuals with diabetes have 2-4 fold higher risks of having acute vascular events such as heart attack or stroke. Indians have the highest incidence of coronary artery disease compared to any other ethnic group in the world. To create awareness and develop educational and preventive programs Dr Rao started SASAT in the USA in 1993. Prevention of these chronic metabolic diseases is cost-effective and is probably the only choice for the masses. Even if the risk factors for these diseases are detected early, not all individuals can afford the expensive treatment options.

It has been estimated that one-third of all the children born in India are of low birth weight (LBW). Many studies have demonstrated that these LBW babies are at risk for developing hypertension, diabetes, and vascular diseases. One way to reduce this health burden is to develop a strong maternal nutrition program for pregnant women so that the number of LBW newborns can be drastically reduced.

The general diet of South Asians by and large is very rich in carbohydrates and this puts a great demand on insulin secretion. It is therefore essential to improve the general diet of the population. Fortification of foods with nutrients is one cost-effective choice. Alternately genetic engineering of better cereals, fruits, and vegetables also could be encouraged. Finally, it is very well established that lifestyle changes reduce the disease burden of chronic diseases. Lifestyle changes including workplace wellness programs, should be encouraged to reduce the disease burden in this population. Prevention in whatever way possible is the primary goal to address this epidemic.

Awards and Fellowships

 * Fellow, Royal Entomological Society, London.
 * Fellow, International Academy of Clinical and Applied Thrombosis and Hemostasis, USA.
 * Fellow, Indian College of Cardiology, India.
 * Distinguished Career Award, International Union of Angiology, France.
 * Distinguished Career Award, World Clinical Cardiology Conference, 2009
 * Life Time Achievement Award, 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Biologists, India
 * Paul Harris Fellow, USA

Professional Society Affiliations
International Academy of Clinical and Applied Thrombosis
 * Member			Society for Biomaterials, USA
 * Life Member		Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs (India)
 * Rotary Club  		Paul Harris Fellow
 * Life Fellow		The Commonwealth Association For Mental Handicap Developmental Disabilities, United Kingdom
 * Member		     	Indian College of Cardiology, India
 * Founder and CEO 	       South Asian Society on Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis (SASAT)
 * Member		      	American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
 * Member			The Biochemical Society, London, United Kingdom
 * Life Member		The Academy of Environmental Biology, India
 * Member			The New York Academy of Sciences, NY, USA
 * Member			American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), USA
 * Member			American Society of Hematology, USA
 * Life Member		Friends of Vellore, Christian Medical College, India
 * Member			American Association of Clinical Chemists (AACC), USA
 * Member			National Thrombosis Council, AHA, USA
 * Member			International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)
 * Member			American Association of Pathologists (AAP), USA
 * Life Member		Chronobiological Society of India, India
 * Member			Association of Scientists of Indian Origin in America, USA
 * Fellow		 	National Academy of Clinical Biochemists, USA
 * Member			American Association for Clinical Chemists, USA
 * Member			Minnesota Chromatography Forum, USA
 * Member			Sigma Xi and Gamma Sigma Delta, USA
 * Founder			Academy of Pest Control Sciences, India
 * Life Member		Food and Grain Technologists Research Association, India
 * Life Member		Entomological Society of India, India
 * Fellow			Royal Entomological Society, London, United Kingdom
 * Member			American Association of Blood Banks
 * Member     		International Society of Blood Transfusion
 * Board			North American Thrombosis Forum
 * Board			International Union of Angiology
 * Founder Director, Karnataka Hybrid Micro Devices, Bangalore, India
 * Hon. Professor, Sri Chitra Tiruanl Institute For Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum.
 * Board, Manipal Acunova, Bangalore
 * Founder Chairman, Aayusmart. LLC, Bangalore.
 * Chief Technology Officer, Stellixir Biotech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore