A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

At the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, India, Amit Sharma runs a small research group focused on structural analyses of malaria parasite proteins. Collaborating with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Grenoble, France, they have now presented the structure of one of the parasite proteins that recognizes human blood cells and facilitates parasite invasion into host cells (see page 741).

Malaria is a pressing problem in India and throughout the developing world — Sharma says being able to do research that is of direct relevance to the country he lives in is one of the benefits of working at the ICGEB. The focus on malaria, he says, is to understand the basic biology of the parasite for its potential and eventual use in controlling the disease.

68 countries are signatories to the ICGEB.

103 manuscripts have been submitted to Nature from India in the past six months (1.9% of total submissions).

1,183 is the number of downloads the paper by Sharma et al. received from the Nature website in the first week after advance online publication.

6 papers with contributing authors working in India have been published in Nature in the past year.