AU scholar to work on anti-cancer drugs in US

Prayagraj: Making Allahabad University proud, a research scholar of the university’s department of botany, Piush Srivastava, has been invited to join the department of surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago, US, where he will be carrying out the testing of anti-cancerous drug(s) on animal model.
A research scholar under Prof Anupam Dikshit, former faculty member of the department, Piush would be leaving for the US from in September and his invite comes through the US department of state J1-exchange visitor program.
Piush’s would soon be submitting his thesis and completing his PhD under Prof Dikhit. But, before he could finish his PhD, he has bagged an invite from the reputed institute.
Piush would be given an amount of $39,000 per year, which means around Rs 2.4 lakh per month for his research fellowship, starting September 16, 2020. “If international flights start operating, I would leave for the US as scheduled. Through my work I will try my best to make AU and my city proud,” said Piush.
During the course of his sponsorship, he would be supported and directly supervised by Professor Ajay Rana of the university.
Piush’s guide, Prof Dikshit informed TOI that his student has been working on molecular taxonomy of higher plants in collaboration of a scientist of the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow. “This technique is useful in saving the time for identification of plants one need not to wait till flowering of plant. In his work he has discovered many DNA markers that will be helpful for identification of plants in their vegetative form,” said Prof Dikshit.