Prof. M. R. N. Murthy is a distinguished crystallographer and a pioneer of structural biology in India. He previously served as Distinguished Professor and AstraZeneca Chair at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB). Prof. Murthy completed his master’s degree in physics from IIT Madras and earned his Ph.D. in crystallography at the Indian Institute of Science under the guidance of Prof. K. Venkatesan. He pursued postdoctoral research with Prof. M. G. Rossmann at Purdue University, USA, one of the founders of modern structural biology.
As a long-standing faculty member of the Molecular Biophysics Unit at IISc, he played a seminal role in establishing and advancing macromolecular crystallography in India and was among the first in the country to work on viral protein structures. He has contributed nearly 100 protein crystal structures to the Protein Data Bank and authored numerous publications in leading international journals. His contributions have been recognized with several prestigious honours, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award. He currently serves as a Visiting Faculty member at the School of Biosciences, Chanakya University.