Saumitra Das

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Saumitra Das

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1962|1|20}}

| birth_place = West Bengal, India

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = Indian

| fields = {{ublist | Molecular virology | Molecular biology }}

| workplaces = {{ublist | Indian Institute of Science }}

| alma_mater = {{ublist | University of Calcutta | Indian Institute of Chemical Biology | University of California, Los Angeles }}

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = Studies on Hepatitis C virus and Coxsackievirus B3 RNA

| awards = {{ublist| 2005 N-BIOS Prize | 2010 NASI-Raliance Platinum Jubilee Award | 2012 Ranbaxy Research Award }}

}}

Saumitra Das (born 20 January 1962) is an Indian microbiologist and a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science. Known for his studies in the fields of molecular virology and molecular biology, Das is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Science Academy. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2005.{{Cite web |url=http://dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/list_of_bioscience_awardees.pdf |title=Awardees of National Bioscience Awards for Career Development |date=2016 |publisher=Department of Biotechnology |access-date=2017-11-20 |archive-date=4 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304191331/http://dbtindia.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/list_of_bioscience_awardees.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Biography

File:Nikhilmore IISc Bangalore india.jpg

Saumitra Das, born on 20 January 1962{{Cite web |url=http://www.ias.ac.in/describe/fellow/Das,_Prof._Saumitra |title=Fellow profile-S Das |date=2017-12-19 |publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences |access-date=2017-12-19}} in the Indian state of West Bengal, did his doctoral studies on the host-pathogen interaction of Leishmania donovani, an intracellular parasite which causes leishmaniasis, at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology which earned him a PhD from the University of Calcutta in 1992.{{Cite web |url=http://mcbl.iisc.ac.in/Saumitra/principal-investiogator.html |title=Laboratory of Dr. Saumitra Das |date=2017-12-19 |website=mcbl.iisc.ac.in |access-date=2017-12-19 |archive-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218014822/http://mcbl.iisc.ac.in/Saumitra/principal-investiogator.html |url-status=dead }} He continued his research on host-virus interactions during his post-doctoral days at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and after completion of the work, he joined the university in 1994 as an assistant research virologist. On his return to India in 1998, he joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) where he later became an associate professor{{Cite web |url=http://bio.iisc.ac.in/?q=faculty/saumitra-das |title=Saumitra Das - Division of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science |date=2017-12-19 |website=bio.iisc.ac.in |access-date=2017-12-19 |archive-date=22 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222052254/http://bio.iisc.ac.in/?q=faculty%2Fsaumitra-das |url-status=dead }} and serves as a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology.{{Cite web |url=http://mcbl.iisc.ac.in/Saumitra/ |title=Laboratory of Dr. Saumitra Das - research intro |date=2017-12-19 |website=mcbl.iisc.ac.in |access-date=2017-12-19}} He also coordinates the functioning of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Hepatitis C virus, a research arm of the Department of Biotechnology housed in IISc campus.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dbtindia.nic.in/salient-achievements/ |title=Centres of excellence – Salient Achievements |date=2017-12-19 |website=www.dbtindia.nic.in |access-date=2017-12-19}}

Das resides in the New Housing Colony of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Karnataka.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasi.org.in/fellows.asp?RsFilter=D |title=NASI fellows |date=2017-12-19 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences, India |access-date=2017-12-19 |archive-date=17 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717020647/http://www.nasi.org.in/fellows.asp?RsFilter=D |url-status=dead }}

Legacy

File:HCV.png.]]

The microbiological research of Saumitra Das covered the fields of molecular virology and molecular biology.{{Cite web |url=http://insaindia.res.in/detail/P12-1571 |title=Indian fellow - S Das |date=2017-10-21 |publisher=Indian National Science Academy |access-date=2017-10-22}} During his post-doctoral days at UCLA, Das identified I-RNA, a small RNA molecule isolated from the yeast species of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and demonstrated its antiviral activity against viruses that cause polio and hepatitis C. Later, at IISc, he focused on the translation of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and has done in vivo and in vitro experiments on the characterization of La, a cellular trans-acting factor.{{Cite web |url=http://mcbl.iisc.ac.in/Saumitra/Hepatitis-C-virus.html |title=Laboratory of Dr. Saumitra Das - translation |date=2017-12-19 |website=mcbl.iisc.ac.in |access-date=2017-12-19}} The team of scientists led by Das concentrates on the regulation of transcription and translation, especially hepatitis C virus and Coxsackievirus B3 RNA.{{cite book|author1=D. P. Burma|author2=Maharani Chakravorty|title=From Physiology and Chemistry to Biochemistry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CaQ3-x3LXMC&pg=PA430|year=2011|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-3220-5|pages=430–}} The research conducted by Das, along with Anjali Anoop Karande (his colleague from the biochemistry department of IISc) and their teams were successful in the development of a vaccine for hepatitis C; the vaccine, a mixture of virus-like particles, worked by enveloping the HCV proteins.{{Cite web |url=https://www.journals.elsevier.com/vaccine/news/a-novel-vaccine-against-hepatitis-c-virus-customized-for-the |title=A novel vaccine against Hepatitis C Virus customized for the Indian population |date=2017 |website=Elsevier |access-date=2017-12-19}} His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles{{Cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=L04YAt0AAAAJ&hl=en |title=On Google Scholar |date=2017-11-23 |publisher=Google Scholar |access-date=2017-11-23}}{{Cite web |url=http://repository.ias.ac.in/view/fellows/Das=3ASaumitra=3A=3A.html |title=Browse by Fellow |date=2017-12-17 |publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences |access-date=2017-12-17}}{{Refn|group=note|Please see Selected bibliography section}} and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 111 of them.{{Cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saumitra_Das2 |title=On ResearchGate |date=2017-12-17 |access-date=2017-12-17}} He and his colleagues hold several patents for the processes they have developed.{{Cite web |url=https://patents.justia.com/inventor/saumitra-das |title=Saumitra Das Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search |date=2017-12-20 |website=patents.justia.com |language=en |access-date=2017-12-20}} He is also a member of the American Society of Virology and the American Society for Microbiology.

Awards and honors

The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2005. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 2009,{{Cite web |url=http://www.ias.ac.in/listing/fellows/D |title=Fellowship - Indian Academy of Sciences |date=2017-12-17 |website=www.ias.ac.in |language=en |access-date=2017-12-17}} the same year as received the elected fellowship of National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasi.org.in/Year%20Book%202015.pdf |title=NASI Year Book 2015 |date=2017-12-17 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences, India |access-date=2017-12-17 |archive-date=6 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150806211716/http://www.nasi.org.in/Year%20Book%202015.pdf |url-status=dead }} The NASI honored him again a year later with the 2010 NASI-Raliance Platinum Jubilee Award.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasi.org.in/ripja.htm |title=NASI-Raliance Platinum Jubilee Award |date=2017-12-20 |website=www.nasi.org.in |access-date=2017-12-20 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202234730/http://www.nasi.org.in/ripja.htm |url-status=dead }} The Ranbaxy Science Foundation chose him for the Ranbaxy Research Award for medical research in 2012{{Cite web |url=http://www.evaluategroup.com/Universal/View.aspx?type=Story&id=499016 |title=Ranbaxy Declares Research Awards 2012 "honours Five Outstanding Scientists & Five Young Science Scholars" |date=22 March 2014 |website=www.evaluategroup.com |access-date=2017-12-20}} and he received the elected fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy the same year.{{Cite web |url=http://www.insaindia.res.in/pdf/YearBook_2016.pdf |title=INSA Year Book 2016 |date=2017-12-17 |publisher=Indian National Science Academy |access-date=2017-12-17}} He was selected for the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Department of Science and Technology in 2014.

Selected bibliography

{{Cite journal |last1=Balakrishnan |first1=Sreenath |last2=Suma |first2=M.s. |last3=Raju |first3=Shilpa R. |last4=Bhargav |first4=Santosh D.B. |last5=Arunima |first5=S. |last6=Das |first6=Saumitra |last7=Ananthasuresh |first7=G.k. |date=2015-08-05 |title=A Scalable Perfusion Culture System with Miniature Peristaltic Pumps for Live-Cell Imaging Assays with Provision for Microfabricated Scaffolds |journal=BioResearch Open Access |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=343–357 |doi=10.1089/biores.2015.0024|pmc=4534047 |pmid=26309810}}
{{Cite book |last1=Mansouri |first1=Alireza |last2=Karamchandani |first2=Jason |last3=Das |first3=Sunit |date=2017 |editor-last=De Vleeschouwer |editor-first=Steven |title=Molecular Genetics of Secondary Glioblastoma |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK469981/ |location=Brisbane (AU) |publisher=Codon Publications |isbn=9780994438126 |pmid=29251857 |doi=10.15586/codon.glioblastoma.2017.ch2}}
{{Cite journal |last1=Nath |first1=Sayantan |last2=Das |first2=Sambuddha |last3=Bhowmik |first3=Aditi |last4=Ghosh |first4=Sankar Kumar |last5=Choudhury |first5=Yashmin |title=The GSTM1 and GSTT1 null genotypes increase the risk for Type 2 diabetes mellitus and the subsequent development of diabetic complications: A meta-analysis |journal=Current Diabetes Reviews |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |doi=10.2174/1573399814666171215120228 |pmid=29243583 |pages=31–43|year=2019 |s2cid=23951314 }}

Notes

References

External links

{{Cite web |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Das%20S%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=26309810 |title=Saumitra Das on PubMed |date=2017-12-19 |website=www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |access-date=2017-12-19}}

Category:N-BIOS Prize recipients

Category:Living people

Category:Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences

Category:1962 births

Category:20th-century Indian biologists

Category:Indian cell biologists

Category:Indian molecular biologists

Category:Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India

Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy

Category:Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science

Category:University of Calcutta alumni

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni