Minnie M. Mathan

Early life Mathan was inspired to study medicine and follow her father, a doctor, into surgery.

Academics Mathan studied in the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore and obtained an MBBS degree from the University of Madras. She had hoped to train further in surgery at the college, but her teachers dissuaded her. She instead switched to pathology work in the laboratory, while pursuing her post-graduate and doctoral degrees from Madras University. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1983.

The relatively new electron microscope, with its exponentially larger magnification capabilities compared to light microscopy, had a profound impact on biological research. Access to the instrument in 1967 at CMC led Mathan to focus on ultrastructural pathology, a new field of research in India at the time.

Accomplishments Mathan's ultrastructure gastrointestinal studies, combined with her use of in vitro organ cultures and immunological studies, resulted in an explanation for development of intestinal lesions in tropical sprue. The paper she published on the subject in the medical journal, Gastroenterology, went on to be adjudged the best biomedical sciences paper from India between 1972 and 1976. Mathan's research on the subject led to identifying it as a major cause of acute diarrhea among children in India.

Mathan collaborated with clinicians to prove that endotoxin-induced vascular lesion in the intestinal lamina propria determines how severe acute diarrhea, including cholera, can be for a patient.

Mathan was a consultant at the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh, consultant in electronmicroscopy to the Indian Council of Medical Research and an INSA Senior Scientist.

Awards Source: Hoechst Om Prakash Award (1977) Boots Gastroenterology Award (1988) Fellow, National Academy of Medical Sciences (1993) Founder Fellow of the Indian College of Pathologists (1993) Kshanica Oration Award by ICMR (1995) Amruth Mody Unichem Prize (1996) Parke-Davis Oration Award by Indian Society of Gastroenterology (1996) Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK (1996) Basanthi Devi Amirchand Award (1997) Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award (1997)

Publications Select Journal Articles P P Maiya, S M Pereira, M M Mathan, P Bhat, M J Albert, S J Baker (1977). Aetiology of acute gastroenteritis in infancy and early childhood in southern India. Archives of Disease in Childhood 52: 482–5. C K Paniker, S Mathew, R Dharmarajan, M M Mathan, V I Mathan (1977). Epidemic gastroenteritis in children associated with rotavirus infection. Indian Journal of Medical Research 66:525-9. M M Mathan, V I Mathan (1991). Morphology of Rectal Mucosa of Patients with Shigellosis. Clinical Infectious Diseases 13. doi: 10.1093/CLINIDS/13.SUPPLEMENT 4.S314. S Shah, V Thomas, M M Mathan, A Chacko, G Chandy, B S Ramakrishna, D K Rolston (1992). Colonoscopic study of 50 patients with colonic tuberculosis. Gut 33(3): 347–351. doi: 10.1136/GUT.33.3.347. G Kang, M Mathew, D P Rajan, J D Daniel, M M Mathan, V I Mathan, J P Muliyil (1998). Prevalence of intestinal parasites in rural Southern Indians. Tropical Medicine & International Health 3(1):70-75. doi: 10.1046/J.1365-3156.1998.00175.X. A B Pulimood, B S Ramakrishna, G Kurian, S Peter, S Patra, V I Mathan, M M Mathan (1999). Endoscopic mucosal biopsies are useful in distinguishing granulomatous colitis due to Crohn's disease from tuberculosis. Gut 45(4):537-541. doi: 10.1136/GUT.45.4.537. M S Ahmad, S Krishnan, B S Ramakrishna, M M Mathan, A B Pulimood, S Murthy (2000). Butyrate and glucose metabolism by colonocytes in experimental colitis in mice. Gut 46(4): 493–499. doi: 10.1136/GUT.46.4.493.