Amar Nath Bhaduri (1935–2003) was an Indian molecular enzymologist and chemical biologist, known for his studies on

UDP-glucose 4-epimerase The enzyme UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (), also known as UDP-galactose 4-epimerase or GALE, is a homodimeric epimerase found in bacterial, fungal, plant, and mammalian cells. This enzyme performs the final step in the Leloir pathway of galactose ...

, a homodimeric epimerase found in cells and his work on Leishmania donovani, the protozoal pathogen for Kala-azar. He was the director of the

Indian Institute of Chemical Biology Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) is a biomedical research centre in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established in 1935 as Indian Institute of Experimental Medicine (IIEM), it was inducted under the aegis of Council of Scientific & ...

(IICB), Kolkata and an elected 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 Acade ...

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 ...

. 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 ...

, 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 or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1978, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Amar Nath Bhaduri, born on 12 November 1935 at

Shyambazar Shyambazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The area, under Shyampukur police station of Kolkata Police, has been, along with neighbouring Bagbazar, the citadel of the Bengali ari ...

, in northern

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

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 fou ...

, did his schooling at the

Scottish Church Collegiate School The Scottish Church Collegiate School is a school in north Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Notable alumni * Lalbehari De, Religious Leader and Writer. * Turiyananda, Religious Leader. * Dhan Gopal Mukerji, First successful Indian man of letter ...

before continuing his college studies at Presidency College and the University College of Science, Technology & Agriculture of

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

. Moving to the US, he secured the degree of Doctor of Science from

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1964 and after completing his post-doctoral studies at

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 ...

, returned to India in 1966 to join the

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

as a member of faculty of the department of pharmacy. He served the institution till his move to the

(IICB) in 1985 and superannuated as the director of the institute; in between, he had a short stint at

Roche Institute of Molecular Biology The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology was created on July 14, 1967 when John Burns, then the vice president of research at Hoffman-La Roche, persuaded biochemist Sidney Udenfriend to leave the National Institutes of Health and help him creat ...

during 1975–76. Post his retirement, he continued his association with IICB as an emeritus scientist. He was also serving as an honorary professor at Calcutta and Jadvapur universities when he died on 5 June 2003 at Kolkata, succumbing to age-related illnesses, at the age of 67, survived by his wife, son and daughter. The Indian National Science Academy has documented his life in their ''Biographical Memoirs''.

Legacy

At the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Bhaduri was associated with Paul Srere and worked on

citrate Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in the ...

metabolism and

fatty acid biosynthesis Fatty is a derogatory term for someone who is obese. It may refer also to: People * Mai Fatty, Gambian politician * Roscoe Arbuckle (1887–1933), American actor and comedian * Fatty Briody (1858–1903), American Major League Baseball player ...

. It was during his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, he elucidated the effect of

uridine Uridine (symbol U or Urd) is a glycosylated pyrimidine analog containing uracil attached to a ribose ring (or more specifically, a ribofuranose) via a β-N1-glycosidic bond. The analog is one of the five standard nucleosides which make up nucle ...

nucleotides Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules with ...

on an

epimerase Epimerases and racemases are isomerase enzymes that catalyze the inversion of stereochemistry in biological molecules. Racemases catalyze the stereochemical inversion around the asymmetric carbon atom in a substrate having only one center of asymm ...

. Later, he continued his researches at Jadavpur University and discovered methodologies for the purification of

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD or G6PDH) () is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction : D-glucose 6-phosphate + NADP+ + H2O 6-phospho-D-glucono-1,5-lactone + NADPH + H+ This enzyme participates in the pentose phospha ...

and for the regulation of

from S. fragilis. His researches revealed that the enzyme was ''

allosterically In biochemistry, allosteric regulation (or allosteric control) is the regulation of an enzyme by binding an effector molecule at a site other than the enzyme's active site. The site to which the effector binds is termed the ''allosteric site ...

activated by metabolically-related sugar phosphates'' and its allosteric kinetics is uni-directional, a property helpful in the regulation of galactose metabolism. He also proposed a protocol for the desensitization of the enzyme by heat, thereby generating hyperbolic kinetics and demonstrated that the addition and dissociation of Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide activated or de-activated the enzyme. His work was reported to have widened the understanding about the active sites of the enzyme as well as of the molecular mechanisms of allostericity. He studied the host-parasite interaction of

Leishmania donovani ''Leishmania donovani'' is a species of intracellular parasites belonging to the genus ''Leishmania'', a group of haemoflagellate kinetoplastids that cause the disease leishmaniasis. It is a human blood parasite responsible for visceral leishmani ...

, a protozoal pathogen affecting humans, and his work attempted to explain the biomodulatory role for

Ca2+ Calcium ions (Ca2+) contribute to the physiology and biochemistry of organisms' cells. They play an important role in signal transduction pathways, where they act as a second messenger, in neurotransmitter release from neurons, in contraction of ...

in the life cycle of the parasite. His researches have been published by way of several articles and he mentored many scholars in their doctoral researches. Bhaduri, who sat in the editorial boards of journals such as the Journal of Biosciences from 1986 to 1992 and the ''Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics'' from 1983 to 1991, was a member of the national organizing committee of the

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) is an international non-governmental organisation concerned with biochemistry and molecular biology. Formed in 1955 as the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB), the union ...

(IUBMB) Congress held in New Delhi in 1994. He served as the project director for the UNDP project on ''Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Parasites'' and presided the biochemistry and biophysics section of the

Indian Science Congress Indian Science Congress Association(ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Kolkata and it meets annually in the first week of January. It has a ...

held in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

in 1990. He was a president of the Institute of Science, Education and Culture (ISEC), Kolkata.

Awards and honors

Bhaduri delivered several award orations including the B. C. Guha Memorial Lecture of the University of Calcutta in 1989. An elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (1986) and the

(1989), he was awarded the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 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 or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the

in 1979. Indian National Science Academy honored him again with Jagadis Chandra Bose Medal in 1995. He has received DSc (Honaris Causa) from Burdwan University in 1995 and his name has been included in the list of 200 illustrious alumni of Presidency University during their Bicentenary celebration.

References

External links

* *

Biography

Legacy

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links

Further reading