News and pic by Urban John D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Aug 27: At the tenth convocation ceremony of the University of Malaysia Sabah, which was held at Kuala Lumpur from August 24 to 26 2008, Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph D) in Medical Physiology was conferred on Dr Srinivas Jayachandra. This research degree was guided by Prof Urban J A D’Souza (Udyavar, Udupi), professor of the School of Medicine, University Malaysia. This research grant was funded by Monash University Australia and University Malaysia.

Dr Srinivas Jayachandra, MBBS, MD is an alumnus of Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar (MBBS) and Kasturba Medical College Mangalore (MD). He was also a former student of Dr Urban D’Souza at KMC Mangalore for his MD degree. The research topic of his thesis was “Evaluation of the Reproductive Toxicity of Diazinon in Male and Female Offspring Exposed to their Mothers throughout Pregnancy and Lactation”. 

In brief, declining fertility index among human and animal kingdom is a prevailing problem all over the World. Environmental pollution by means of pesticide use, combustion of petroleum, presence of heavy metals etc., is known to be a constant threat to human health including fertility. In the past five decades, normal human sperm count and semen quality has drastically come down and almost halved, and scientists predict total infertility to set in in the future decades, if the rate of the present environmental pollution continues. Pesticides directly or indirectly affect the human health, as they are routinely used in agriculture, lawns, food storage and also to contain the menace of pests at homes. Growing fetus (baby), in the womb is much more vulnerable to the toxicity of these chemicals. In his research experiment, mother mediated toxicity of diazinon (a common pesticide) was studied in the first generation offspring at their adulthood on reproductive functions and it has been proved that these pesticides are highly toxic to both male and female reproductive generation inducing irreversible damage.

Dr Srinivas defended his research successfully with the panel of experts in the field and was conferred Ph D degree in medical physiology by the University of Malaysia. This research was presented during the World Epididymis Congress at Paris, France and was well accepted internationally for its originality and relevance in the present context. Presently Dr Srinivasa is working as an assistant professor at Hyderabad medical College.