Suman Kumar Dhar (born 1968) is an Indian molecular biologist and a professor at the ''Special Centre for Molecular Medicine'' of

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

. He is known for his studies on the

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...

and cell cycle regulation in

Helicobacter pylori ''Helicobacter pylori'', previously known as ''Campylobacter pylori'', is a gram-negative, microaerophilic, spiral (helical) bacterium usually found in the stomach. Its helical shape (from which the genus name, helicobacter, derives) is though ...

and

Plasmodium falciparum ''Plasmodium falciparum'' is a Unicellular organism, unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, and the deadliest species of ''Plasmodium'' that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female ''Anopheles'' mosqu ...

, two pathogens affecting humans. An elected fellow of the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences, he is also a recipient of the

National Bioscience Award for Career Development The National Bio-science Award for Career Development or N-BIOS Prize is an Indian science award for recognizing excellence and promoting research in bio-sciences disciplines. It was instituted in 1999 by the Department of Biotechnology of the Gov ...

of the

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

in 2010. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2012, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Suman Kumar Dhar, born on 6 March 1968 in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, graduated in chemistry from

Burdwan University The University of Burdwan (also known as Burdwan University or B. U.) is a public university in Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, India. It was established by the West Bengal Government as a teaching and affiliating university on 15 June 1960 wit ...

in 1989 and completed his master's degree in biochemistry in 1992 from

Kalyani University The University of Kalyani, established in 1960, is a Government of West Bengal administered, UGC affiliated, NAAC accredited, collegiate Public Research university in Kalyani, West Bengal, India. It offers courses at the Undergraduate, Post ...

before securing a PhD in molecular biology from

(JNU) in 1998. He worked from 1997 to 1998 as a research assistant at the department of microbiology of the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Next, he did his post-doctoral studies at

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two f ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

which he completed in 2001. Returning to India the same year, he joined

as an assistant professor at the ''Special Centre for Molecular Medicine'' (SCMM) of the university where he rose in ranks to become an associate professor in 2005 and a professor in 2011, finally reaching the position of the chairperson of SCMM in 2011. In between, he served as a visiting fellow at Harvard Medical School from 2002 to 2003), the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

from 2003 and 2004, and the

Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin) (BNITM) in Hamburg is Germany's largest institution for tropical medicine, with a workforce of about 250 people in Hamburg. It is member of the Leibniz-A ...

in 2007. He also served as a Humboldt Research Fellow at Bernhard Nocht Institute in 2008. Besides his academic duties at JNU, Dhar is involved in the establishment of ''Centre of Excellence in Parasitology'', a

-funded project. He was also a member of the proctorial committee constituted by JNU to inquire about the 2016 JNU protests.

Career

Dhar's research history starts during his graduate studies when he worked on

Entamoeba histolytica ''Entamoeba histolytica'' is an anaerobic parasitic amoebozoan, part of the genus ''Entamoeba''. Predominantly infecting humans and other primates causing amoebiasis, ''E. histolytica'' is estimated to infect about 35-50 million people worldwid ...

, the protozoan which causes

amoebiasis Amoebiasis, or amoebic dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by a parasitic amoeba ''Entamoeba histolytica''. Amoebiasis can be present with no, mild, or severe symptoms. Symptoms may include lethargy, loss of weight, colonic ulce ...

, focusing on its ribosomal DNA circle. Later at Harvard Medical School, his post-doctoral studies were centered on mammalian DNA replication which assisted him to identify the

ORC6 Origin recognition complex subunit 6 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ORC6 (ORC6L) gene. Background The origin recognition complex (ORC) is a highly conserved six subunit protein complex essential for the initiation of the DNA repli ...

(origin recognition complex subunit six) and its role in viral DNA replication. He also identified

geminin Geminin, DNA replication inhibitor, also known as GMNN, is a protein in humans encoded by the ''GMNN'' gene. A nuclear protein present in most eukaryotes and highly conserved across species, numerous functions have been elucidated for geminin inc ...

, a replication inhibitor, as a blocking factor of viral DNA replication, a discovery which earned him a US patent. Later, he studied the human pathogens,

and

and their DNA replication and cell cycle regulation. He also worked on anti-malarial drugs and proposed

Acriflavine Acriflavine (INN: acriflavinium chloride) is a topical antiseptic. It has the form of an orange or brown powder. It may be harmful in the eyes or if inhaled. It is a dye and it stains the skin and may irritate. The hydrochloride form is more irri ...

as an anti-malarial agent, which has also been patented by him. His work has identified PfGyrase for P. falciparum and HpDnaB helicase for H. pylori as targets and these researches are reported to be helpful in drug discovery efforts for

Gastric ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...

Gastric adenocarcinoma Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

s and Malaria. Dhar has documented his research by way of a number of articles and online repositories such as

PubMed PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintain the ...

and Pubfacts have listed many of them. He has contributed chapters to three books which include ''Epigenetics: Development and Disease'' by

Tapas Kumar Kundu Tapas Kumar Kundu (born 1962) is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the ...

. He is associated with many science journals such as

Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in ...

Molecular Microbiology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

FEBS Journal ''The FEBS Journal'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. It covers research on all aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, an ...

and Medical Science Monitor as an ad-hoc reviewer and has delivered featured talks including his oration at the Gordon Research Conference on Host-Parasite interaction held in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

in 2012.

Awards and honors

While in the US, Dhar received two grants for his researches, a grant from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

for studies on emerging infectious diseases (1997–98) and the

United States Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense, Department of Defense of the U.S. The Department of the Army is the Federal government of the United States ...

grant for research on breast cancer (2000–03). He received the Senior International Research Fellowship of the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

in 2005, the tenancy of the fellowship extending to 2010, and on its expiry, he received the Wellcome Trust- DBT Senior Research Fellowship in 2010. In 2006, Dhar received the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and four years later, DBT honored him again with the 2010

. He was elected to the

Guha Research Conference Guha Research Conference (GRC) is a professional society set up by Indian scholars to develop the field of Biochemistry. It was established in 1960, and is named after Biresh Chandra Guha (1904-1962). The first four GRC meetings were held alongsid ...

in 2007 and the next year brought him the Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology. A member of the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It ...

, Dhar was awarded the

, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the

in 2012. The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as a fellow in 2011 and he became a fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

and the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

in 2016.

Patents

* *

Selected bibliography

* * * *

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dhar, Suman Kumar Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science N-BIOS Prize recipients 1968 births Scientists from West Bengal Living people Indian molecular biologists 20th-century Indian inventors Indian scientific authors University of Burdwan alumni University of Kalyani alumni Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University University of Nebraska Medical Center alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India 20th-century Indian biologists 21st-century Indian inventors