Dr. Ravindra N. Singh
Professor of Biomedical Sciences
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
Biography
Ravindra N. Singh is a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, Iowa, USA. He received his M.Sc. in Biochemistry from Banaras Hindu University and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
From 1993 to 2000, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the USA, including at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Oregon State University in Corvallis, and the University of Texas at Austin. In 2001, he became a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He joined Iowa State University as a tenured Associate Professor in 2007 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2012.
His research focuses on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of infant mortality. He is credited with many seminal discoveries on SMA gene regulation and function. His most important achievement concerns the discovery of the intronic splicing silencer N1 (ISS-N1) target, which produced the first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of SMA.
Dr. Singh received the 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor awarded by the United States government and the White House to promising young investigators. Since 2001, his research has been funded by agencies including Cure SMA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the National Institutes of Health. From 2008 to 2016, he held the Salsbury Endowed Chair at ISU.
He has served on the prestigious Biotechnology and Graduate Councils of ISU and has been a member of numerous grant review panels and editorial boards. He teaches Cell and Molecular Biology to graduate students and is passionate about providing research training to young investigators, including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior fellows.
Academic & Research Highlights
- Professor of Biomedical Sciences | Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
- Research focus | Spinal muscular atrophy gene regulation and function
- Key discovery | Intronic splicing silencer N1 (ISS-N1), the target behind the first FDA-approved treatment for SMA
- 2006 PECASE recipient | Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
- Salsbury Endowed Chair | Iowa State University, 2008–2016