Bhaskar Saha (born 2 January 1964) is an Indian immunologist, cell biologist and a senior scientist at National Centre for Cell Science, Pune. He is known for his contributions in the fields of immunology and

cell signaling In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...

. He is an elected fellow of two of the major Indian science academies,

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

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 2009, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Bhaskar Saha obtained his PhD from Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta (1993). He did his postdoctoral fellowship at Naval Medical Research Institute and also served as Principal Investigator at NMRI, and Faculty, Dept of Medicine, USUHS, Bethesda, USA (1996–97). He joined National Centre for Cell Science in 1998 where he serves as a ''Scientist-G'' and carries out his researches on immunology and cancer biology. His early researches were focused on immunology and he has since shifted his focus to explore that therapeutic uses of his findings. At NCCS, he is involved in five projects viz. '' Leishmania- macrophage interaction'', ''CD40 signaling'', ''DC subset mediated priming against prostate cancer'', ''Development and regulation of regulatory T cells in leishmaniasis'' and ''DC subsets in leishmaniasis and regulation of T cell response''. He has published several research articles, reviews and book chapters that could be found in Pubmed. He has also served as a faculty member of

Pune University Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

and

Vidyasagar University Vidyasagar University was established by an Act of the West Bengal legislature which was notified in the '' Calcutta Gazette'' on 24 June 1981. It is an affiliating university in Paschim Medinipur district of southern West Bengal, India. It ...

. Saha, who is known to have a calm and composed personality, was in the news in 2013 when he staged a hunger strike in protest against the mismanagement of research programs at National Centre for Cell Science. He is married to Ratna, a school teacher at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the couple has a son, Baibaswata and a daughter, Saptaparnee. The family lives in Pune.

Awards and honors

Saha's contributions to the biological sciences earned him the

of the

in 2009. He was elected as a fellow by the

in 2011 and a year later, he became an elected fellow of the

. He is also recipient of National Bioscience Award for Career Development 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 2007.

Selected bibliography

* * * * *

Notes

References

External links