1. The discovery of ATP In 1929 two independent groups of researchers discovered ATP — the energy molecule that drives processes in all living cells.

One was Cyrus H Fiske and Yellapragada Subbarao at Harvard Medical School (Boston) and the other was Karl Lohmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes (Berlin and Heidelberg).

Dr Subbarao was also credited with discovering Aureomycin — an antibiotic that was stronger than both penicillin and streptomycin, and Hetrazen — a drug used to treat fibrosis in animals.

2. Transmission of malaria Sir Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria.

But, the contributions of Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay who assisted with the groundwork for the studies has often been unacknowledged.

Bandyopadhyay would bring malaria-afflicted patients to the lab, collect blood samples for the studies and perform real-time experiments.

3. A beacon during the plague Thousands of lives were lost in the 1898 plague of Bengaluru.

While several hospital workers were forced to leave their jobs at the time, Dr Padmanabhan Palpu stood out for his heroism.

He was appointed superintendent of the plague camps in the city. Dr Palpu would personally coax the family members of infected people to move to these camps.

4. Developing the world’s first non-steroidal contraceptive pill In 1960, a group of Indian researchers led by Dr Nitya Anand developed a birth control pill ‘Saheli’ that was able to prevent pregnancy without disturbing a woman’s hormonal balance.

It did this by preventing the process of implantation (when a fertilised egg attaches to a woman’s uterine lining).

Since it was non-steroidal, if a woman chose to discontinue it, she would be able to regain fertility.

5. A drug that treats ‘kala-azar’ A “monumental” discovery of modern medicine was the drug urea stibamine by Upendra Nath Brahmachari.

The drug was hailed as a breakthrough for treating kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis) — a protozoal infection transmitted by the sand fly.

6. India’s first human dissection Almost 200 years ago, Kolkata-based Dr Madhusudan Gupta performed India’s first human dissection.

Not only was this a commendable feat, but Dr Gupta did so at a time when touching a dead body was completely out of the question for anyone from Hindu society.

Six months of preparation had gone into the procedure which set the stage for future dissections. By 1848, Calcutta Medical College was seeing close to 500 dissections a year.

7. Paving the way for female doctors She may be acclaimed as India’s first practising female doctor but Rukhmabai was more than that.

Much before she ventured into the medical profession, she made headlines for her courageous fight in court to overturn her child marriage.

Rukhmabai’s court case inspired the ‘Age of Consent Act of 1891’, following which the British government banned the practice of child marriage in India.

8. Training a generation of midwives Dr Mary Poonen Lukose was the first woman from Kerala to graduate in medicine.

Whilst studying obstetrics and gynaecology at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, she began training as a midwife and working in the slums of Dublin to deliver babies.

Following her return to India, Lukose conducted present-day Kerala’s first C-section procedure in 1920.

9. An anti-epileptic drug Often hailed as the ‘Doyenne of Chemistry’, Prof Asima Chatterjee was the first woman to be awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Calcutta in 1944.

With more than 400 papers published in national and international journals, Chatterjee was highly reputed.

Over her sixty-year career, one of her most applauded discoveries was the anti-epileptic drug, ‘Ayush-56’ from Marsilia minuta, and the anti-malarial drug.