Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya (born 4 October 1975) is an Indian

molecular biologist 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 ...

epigeneticist In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are " ...

and the principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He is a recipient of the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Bioscience Award 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 ...

. 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, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2016, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya, born on 4 October 1975 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 ...

, did his early schooling at Harinavi DVAS High School. He completed his M.Sc. from Ballygunge Campus of Calcutta University. After securing a PhD from Jadavpur University, he joined the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) as a research fellow in 1998 and on completion of the fellowship in 2003, he moved to Friedrich Miescher Institute where he did his post-doctoral studies from 2004 to 2008 on a Human Frontier Science Program fellowship. Returning to India the same year, he joined IICB as a scientist at the Molecular and Human Genetics Division. He heads the RNA Biology Research Laboratory (RBRL, popularly known as ''Bhattacharyya Lab'') of the institute where serves as the principal investigator and hosts a number of research scholars.

Legacy

Bhattacharyya's researches at RBRL is mainly on microRNA (miRNA), focusing on its compartmentalization, regulation and mediation as well as its alteration in Leishmania invaded macrophage and neighboring non-macrophage cells. His researches assisted in identifying cholesterol as a modulator in

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...

infection and his team has developed a therapeutic protocol for treating

by administering microRNA molecules in patients which has been found to raise the

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...

level which in turn reduced the parasite levels. The treatment, combined with other drugs have been reported to be effective in treating the disease commonly known as Kala azar, which has a reported high drug resistance. One of his earlier projects, ''Mechanism of mRNA compartmentalization in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells'', was funded by 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 ...

. On his current project, ''miRNA and Stability'', he has worked on the mammalian immune and cancer cells and reportedly discovered miRNA activity modulation mechanisms in those cells. At his laboratory, Bhattacharyya mentors many post-doctoral and doctoral researchers. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and the online knowledge repositories which have listed his articles include

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

, and

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 ...

. He is a member of the Neurobiology Task force of the

and was a member of Local Organizing Committee of the ''APSN-ISN Neuroscience School'' held in January 2014. He has delivered several featured talks and has assisted others in their researches.

Awards and honors

Suvendra Bhattacharyya received the Young Scientist Award of the

AAAS AAAS may refer to: * American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a learned society and center for policy research; the publisher of the journal ''Dædalus'' * American Association for the Advancement of Science, an organization that supports scientifi ...

GE Healthcare GE HealthCare is a subsidiary of American multinational conglomerate General Electric incorporated in New York and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2017, it is a manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharma ...

in 2004. He also received the Young Scientist Award of the Indian National Science Academy the same year. The Human Frontier Science Program Organization awarded him the Career Development Award and he was selected for the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, both the honors reaching him in 2008. He received 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

and the NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award of the

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

and

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 ...

in 2015. The

awarded Bhattacharyya, a recipient of the 2016 Prof. B. K. Bachhawat Memorial Travel Award, 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 science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2016. He was one among the 12 Young Achievers of Modern India and featured in the 2016 Calendar of the

Shoolini University Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, also known simply as Shoolini University, is a Private university (India), private university located near Kasauli in Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, 173229, India. It is located ...

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharyya, Suvendra Nath Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science Living people Indian scientific authors 20th-century Indian biologists 1975 births Scientists from Kolkata Bengali scientists N-BIOS Prize recipients Jadavpur University alumni Indian molecular biologists Epigeneticists