At the sprawling Harvard Medical School complex in Massachusetts, a simple sign at the Systems Biology Department reads: Dr Vamsi Mootha, Assistant Professor. Till a few days ago, this low-key 33-year-old was just another keen clinician-researcher tracking mitochondria (little energy factories in the human body), treating patients with metabolical diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol and obesity, and penning his findings for medical journals. On September 28, a phone call changed everything. Dr Mootha, with roots in Andhra Pradesh, became only the sixth person of Indian origin to receive the annual MacArthur Fellowship of $ 500,000, popularly called the ‘Genius awards’, decided by an unknown jury from confidential nominations without applications or interviews. The only criterion: the big idea. Like other awardees, Dr Mootha got a call informing him of the honour. But at the Institute car park, about to leave for a meeting, he nearly cut the line midway, thinking it was a crank call. Once the caller confirmed his credentials, the Stanford University and Harvard University Medical School alumnus says, ‘‘I couldn’t stop grinning.’’ ‘‘It was a shock and continues to be a real big shock.I thought it was a prank. It was a very odd, surreal conversation,’’ he says. Instituted by the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation since 1978, the award is given in recognition of ‘‘original and creative work’’ that leads to ‘‘potential contribution to society’’. The underlying philosophy of the ‘Do-what-you-want-with-it’ grant is that there is no constraint on how the money, spread over five years, is utilised. Former Indian winners include fiction writers Ved Mehta (1982) and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1984); poet A K Ramanujan (1983); sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1991) and economist Sendhil Mullainathan (2002). Dr Mootha earned the award for his use of ‘‘the tools of genomics and proteomics (related to study of DNA) to advance the understanding of disease and of basic biological processes’’. What it simply meant was that his pioneering use of computation and technology to identify faulty strains in energy cells that cause diseases, had just been applauded. In fact, two of Dr Mootha’s key findings have already proved invaluable to the medical community worldwide: the gene that causes a fatal metabolic disease and insights into the causes of type 2 diabetes. ‘‘I love biomedical research,’’ says the internist. ‘‘It has a tangible relevance to human disease and this makes my daily activities infinitely more meaningful.’’ And that’s why part of the money will go towards ‘‘riskier projects’’. Pointing out that government funds often support projects that are ‘‘already well supported by literature and which have preliminary experimental data’’, the youngest of four siblings, has different plans. ‘‘If you want to make a fundamental advance, it’s important to take risks and explore new ideas. Otherwise, there’s only an incremental gain,’’ says Dr Mootha. So, diabetes and cancer will be his core research issues. In fact, it’s this focus that saw him become a doctor. ‘‘The day I told my family I wanted to study medicine, dad took me to lunch and asked if this is something I’m doing because I want to or because of external pressure from the Indian community,’’ he says. But things settled down after he convinced his father, Texas-based General Surgeon Dr Venkataramana Rao, that biomedical research was the road ahead. Tracing his Indian roots, Dr Mootha, who was whisked to the US when he was just six months old, recalls how his father stayed on because ‘‘he felt the educational opportunities might be better for us’’. ‘‘We consider ourselves Indian Americans and are very proud of our heritage,’’ says the bachelor, who ‘‘tries’’ to visit Andhra Pradesh ‘‘once every few years’’ and loves idli sambar. And true to Indian tradition, is there any pressure on him to marry? He evades the question with a laugh. For the moment, it’s just tennis and squash.
