Bhabatarak Bhattacharyya (born 1944), popularly known as Bablu Bhattacharyya, is an Indian structural biologist, biochemist and academic, known for his studies on the

colchicine Colchicine is a medication used to treat gout and Behçet's disease. In gout, it is less preferred to NSAIDs or steroids. Other uses for colchicine include the management of pericarditis and familial Mediterranean fever. Colchicine is taken b ...

tubulin Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoske ...

interaction. He is a former professor and the head of the department of biochemistry at the Bose Institute, Kolkata and an elected fellow of 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

. 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 1988, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Born on 2 December 1944 in

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 ...

to Bhabaranjan-Malancha couple, Bhattacharyya graduated in chemistry from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, ...

and secured his master's degree in physical chemistry from

Rajabazar Science College The University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture (commonly or formerly known as Rashbehari Siksha Prangan & Taraknath Palit Siksha Prangan or Rajabazar Science College & Ballygunge Science College) are two of five main campuses of ...

campus of the same university. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata and pursued his doctoral studies to secure the degree under the guidance of Uma Shankar Nandi of the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

. Moving to the US, he completed his post-doctoral studies at the laboratory of Jan Wolff of 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 ...

. He returned to India in 1976 to join Bose Institute as a CSIR pool officer where he shifted to academics as a lecturer in 1978 and continued his service until his superannuation as a professor and head of the department of biochemistry. He has also been associated with

Presidency College, Calcutta Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

as a professor at their Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Bhattacharyya's early work during his post-doctoral studies at Jan Wolff's laboratory were on

and its binding mechanism with antimitotic drugs. Later, he focused his researches on colchicine-tubulin interaction and elucidated the effect of the ''carbonyl group on the side chain of B-ring'' in the irreversible binding of

. He demonstrated the fluorescence of colchicine-tubilin bind which is reported to have offered an alternative to radio-labeled colchicine in pharmacological

assays An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity of a ...

and made the study of the kinetics of colchicine binding easier. He studied the ''mechanism of chaperone-like activity of tubulin and microtubule associated proteins'' and his studies have known to be of significance in the design of lead compounds as well as new drugs for the treatment of cancer. He has published several articles detailing his research findings, has registered patents for his work and has mentored many scholars in their doctoral studies. His scientific career has been documented in an article, ''Dr. Bablu Bhattacharyya: A Journey of Four Decades with Tubulin'', published in 2015. He has also been associated with the

, Department of Science and Technology,

and the

as a member of their various technical committees.

Awards and honors

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him 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 in 1988. He is an elected fellow of several science academies including the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, the

and

. He is also a recipient of the P. S. Sharma Memorial Award of the Society for Biological Chemists, India and the Foundation Day Award of Bose Institute.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharyya, Bhabatarak Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1944 births Scientists from Kolkata Bengali scientists Indian biochemists Structural biologists Indian scientific authors University of Calcutta alumni Academic staff of Presidency University, Kolkata 20th-century Indian inventors Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India TWAS fellows Living people 20th-century Indian biologists Indian patent holders

Biography

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links