The first dual student between the Université de la Réunion and Manipal University-NCBS, Mr. Chilamakuri Chandra Sekhar Reddy, recently defended his Ph.D. thesis. A student of Prof. R. Sowdhamini at NCBS (part of TIFR), his success follows from a three-way MOU established in 2005 between NCBS, Manipal University (Manipal, India) and a French university, Université de la Réunion (Réunion Island, France). This MOU was set up to facilitate collaborative research in the emerging areas of computational biology. It was designed  to allow for dual studentship, and involves an enhanced twinning programme, including student visits and a Ph.D. degree awarded from the two universities.