page_title: Nuggehalli Raghuveer Moudgal
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Nuggehalli Raghuveer Moudgal / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: A bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) sitting on a rock. Deutsch: Ein Indischer Hutaffe (Macaca radiata) sitzt auf einem Felsen.
context_page_description: Nuggehalli Raghuveer Moudgal was an Indian reproductive biologist, endocrinologist and the chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and dean of Faculty of Science at the Indian Institute of Science. He was known for his pioneering researches on gonadotropin and was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. He was an associate of noted scientists, Choh Hao Li and Rodney Robert Porter and discovered the role of hormones in generating immune response in living beings, during his association with the former. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1976.
context_section_description: Moudgal's early researches at the University of Madras were on the biochemistry of thyroid hormones but he shifted his focus to pituitary gonadotropins during his days at Choh Hao Li's laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley when he established that the hormones generated immune response in living beings and the discovery was reported to be a significant one as the belief till then was the principal function of the hormones was reproduction. Later, at Rodney Porter's laboratory in London, he worked on the role of cellulose as a carrier for immobilization of antibodies. Back in India, he expanded the scope of his researches to cover wider aspects of reproductive biology for which he established a Primate Research Laboratory at IISc in 1965, which was the largest primate house in the country at that time. Working on the macaques in his primate house, he discovered that sialidase from the kidney of the primate acted as an inhibitor of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), a hormone responsible for pubertal development. He conducted elaborate studies on the molecular mechanism of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), a hormone which has significant role in ovulation and testosterone production, and elucidated the unfolding of LH binding to LH receptors in the target cell which was detailed in one of his articles, Effect of ICSH on Early Pregnancy in Hypophysectomized Pregnant Rats, published in Nature in 1969. He discovered that neutralizing LH resulted in neutralization of several reproductive functions such as ovulation, implantation, and gestational progress and the discovery opened a new methodology in immunocontraceptive technology. Later, he furthered his investigations on hormone actions by using antibodies as probes. His findings reportedly prompted R. O. Greep of Harvard University to invite him for collaborative research and Moudgal supervised the work of Greep's Group at his laboratory. At Harvard, he also collaborated with W. R. Moyle and established the presence of Luteinizing hormone/choriogonadotropin receptors on tumor cells in the testicles for the first time, which they revealed in an article, Specific binding of luteinizing hormone to Leydig tumor cells, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1971. He used these tumor cells for further investigations on Hormone-Receptor interactions, Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) production and steroidogenesis and experimentally demonstrated the extent of coupling and response with regard to cyclic AMP production and steroid output.
  Bonnet macaques raised by him at Primate Research Laboratory made it handy for Moudgal in carrying out researches on follicle stimulating hormone in the primates and he discovered that immuno-neutralization of circulating FSH decreases the semen count, leading to oligozoospermia or azoospermia, but did not adversely affect libido. He successfully replicated the experiments in rodents as well and suggested FSH as an immunocontraceptive protocol. However, the researches could not be furthered due to laws related to preparation of protein-based pharmaceuticals. Still, his studies widened the understanding of conditions such as follicular maturation, atresia, spermatogenesis, primate reproduction and lactational amenorrhea. The pioneering work carried out by him led to the Indian Council of Medical Research recognizing his laboratory at IISc as a Centre for Advanced Research in Reproductive Biology, which as since been upgraded as Department of Molecular Reproduction and Developmental Genetics (MRDG). He documented his researches by way of several articles and his work has been cited by a number of authors and researchers. Besides, he edited two books, Gonadotropins and Gonadal Function and Perspectives In Primate Reproductive Biology and contributed chapters to many texts edited by others. He presented a research paper, Gonadotropins and Their Antibodies, at the Laurentian Hormone Research Conference (LHRC) held at Mont Tremblant, Canada in August 1973, thus becoming the first Indian scientist to present a paper at LHRC. 
caption: Bonnet macaque
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