Yamuna Krishnan


Yamuna Krishnan is a professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, where she has worked since August 2014. She was born to P.T. Krishnan and Mini in Parappanangadi, in the Malappuram district of Kerala. She was earlier a reader in National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India. She is the youngest woman recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for science and technology, the highest science award in India, which she won in the year 2013 in chemical science category.

Education details

Krishnan earned her bachelor's in chemistry from the University of Madras, Women's Christian College, Chennai in 1994. She secured MS in chemical sciences in 1997 and PhD in organic chemistry in 2002, both from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Krishnan worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and an 1851 Research Fellow from 2001 to 2004 at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Professional experience

She was a Fellow 'E' at National Centre for Biological Sciences from 2005 to 2009, TIFR, Bangalore, India, and then tenured Reader 'F' from 2009 to 2013 at National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, India. In 2013 she was promoted to Associate Professor 'G' at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, India and moved to University of Chicago as a Professor of Chemistry in August 2014.
She was a recipient of the Wellcome Trust -DBT Alliance Senior Research Fellowship in 2010, the Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist Medal in 2007, Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award from the Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, in 2006, and the Infosys Prize 2017 in the Physical Sciences category.

Research

Her current research interests are in the areas related to structure and dynamics of nucleic acids, nucleic acid nanotechnology, cellular and subcellular technologies.
Her lab tries to understand the functions from DNA beyond that of its traditional role as the genetic material and tries to develop quantitative imaging technology that uses DNA nanodevices as fluorescent reporters to map second messengers in real time in cells and in vivo They develop versatile, functional imaging technology using self-assembled DNA nanostructures to quantitatively image second messengers in real time, in living cells and genetic model organisms.

Awards