While we celebrate Jayanti of Swami Vivekananda today, it's also Jayanti of another great person, not so well known. Dr. Yellapragada Subbarao, a genius who made some of the most outstanding discoveries in medicine on par with the likes of Dr. Alexander Fleming, Ronald Ross.

https://preview.redd.it/mk1etzgcfice1.png?width=533&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1fb03af012d0ae356125db01478c47c5bfbb0dc PS- I had posted this in Andhra Pradesh sub, but God knows why the mods are deleting this repeatedly. Dr. Subbarao was born on the same date as Swami Vivekananda, January 12th, in the coastal Andhra town of Bhimavaram. He would go on to make some of the most significant discoveries ever in medicine. Remember the deadly plague that struck Surat in 1994, a 3rd generation tetracycline called Doxycycline helped in combating the plague epidemic, and controlling it. And the man who discovered that was none other than Dr. Subbarao. The tetracylines were the effort of Dr.Subbarao's untiring efforts, and in what was the centenary year of his birth, it was his own way of paying back to his own country. A country he had left 1922 for the US, and where he did his work till 1948 when he passed away. And yet, there was no stauncher nationalist than Dr. Subbarao, a devout Gandhian, who wore Khadi surgical dress in response to the Swadeshi call. An act, that earned the displeasure of his surgery professor M.C.Bradfield at Madras Medical College.He was given the lesser LMS degree, instead of the MBBS degree, in spite of the fact that he was a brilliant student. It meant he could not enter the Madras Medical service, and had to settle for a job as an Anatomy lecturer at Dr.Lakshmipathi’s Ayurvedic College in Madras. It would be pertinent to note however that Dr. Subba Rao , was allowed admission to Harvard Medical School as a “physician” and his qualifications were cited as a “chemist”. These were the two professions that were exempt from ban on immigration of Indians into US. Even those Indians in US, who had all the legal requirements to become a citizen, were not allowed to become US citizens. Though he , could be able to get his 2 year old student visa extended, the fear of being deported back to India was always there. Even at Harvard, Subbarao, got a position only as a junior faculty member after he finished his diploma there. But it was there along with Cyrus Fiske, that he made one of the most significant discoveries of our times. The Fiske-SubbaRow method of estimating phosphorous is used to date by most biologists around the world. He now began to be quoted in most biochemistry publications around the world. However when Harvard denied him a regular faculty position, Subbarao, left for Lederle Laboratories( now a part of Wyeth, owned by Pfizer) in 1940, where he did some of his most significant work. It was at Lederle, that he, began to work on discovering antibiotics that had a wider range of cures than, the available pencilin and streptomycin.This in a way led to discovery of polymyxin widely used even today in cattle-feed and aureomycin, the first of the various tetracyline antibiotics which all of us used at one time or other. Another of 3rd generation tetracylines, doxycycline, was cleared as a preventive drug for malaria, and was used by UN Assistance Mission in East Timor. In 1945, Subbarao along with his team at Lederle, synthesized Folic acid from liver and a microbial source, which would play a role in curing tropical sprue. For Subbarow, it was a personal achievement too, he had seen two of his brothers fall prey to the disease. One of the most important anti cancer drugs methotrexate was synthesized again by Subbarow. This drug is primarily used for allievating suffering from Burkitt’s Lymphoma, and was one of the very first cancer chemotherapy agents. During his tenure at Lederle, as Director of Research, another important discovery Subbarow made was on Hetrazan the cure for Filariasis. It was primarily the outcome of a project that aimed to protect US soldiers fighting during the War in the Pacific. “You’ve probably never heard of Dr. Yellapragada Subbarao. Yet because he lived you may be alive and are well today. Because he lived you may live longer.”- Doron Antrim This was the best tribute to a man whose contribution to medicine was as significant as many other famous names in the field.