Umesh Varshney

Last updated

Umesh Varshney
Born (1957-10-26) 26 October 1957 (age 66)
India
Nationality Indian
Alma mater
Known for Protein synthesis and DNA repair of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Awards1999  N-BIOS Award
2001  Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
2001 SBC P. S. Sarma Memorial Award
2002  Novo Nordisk Life Sciences Research Award
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor Lashitew Gedamu
Hans van de Sande

Umesh Varshney (born 1957) is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and the head of a laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. [1] He is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and is known for his studies on protein synthesis and DNA repair in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. [2] An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, [3] Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences (India), he is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Government of India. [4] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2001, and then in 2014 with the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology for his contributions to biological sciences. [5]

Contents

Biography

Umesh Varshney, born on 26 October 1957 in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, graduated in science from Jiwaji University in 1975 and completed his master's degree at G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in 1979. [4] Moving to Canada, he did his doctoral studies on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and Studentship by Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Foundation (AHFMR) under the guidance of Lashitew Gedamu and secured his doctoral degree from the University of Calgary in 1985. His post-doctoral studies were at the laboratory of Johan Hans van de Sande at the university and, later, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with U. L. RajBhandary. Returning to India in 1991, he started his career at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (then known as Centre for Genetic Engineering) of the Indian Institute of Science as an assistant professor, and promoted to associate professor (1997), professor (2002) and dean of the undergraduate programs [6] and heads a laboratory [7] while chairing the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science. [8] He is also an honorary faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research since 1999 [9] and is a collaborator of the Genome Metabolism and Biostruct Laboratory, Budapest. [10] He is currently the Chairman of the division of Biological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Legacy

Varhsney's researches are primarily focused in the area of protein synthesis and DNA repair in Escherichiacoli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis . [11] [12] His researches are known to have assisted in a wider understanding of the biology of mycobacterium, more specifically the interaction between ribosome recycling factor and elongation factor G as well as the uracil excision repair pathway. [13] These studies are reported to have been aimed at developing newer drug targets and the attenuated strains. [4] He has detailed his research findings by way of articles published in peer-reviewed journals [note 1] and online scientific article repositories like ResearchGate, Google Scholar and PubFacts have listed many of them. [14] [15] [16] He was one of the organizers of the 21st International tRNA Workshop held at Indian Institute of Science in December 2005, has guided several scholars in their doctoral researches [4] and delivered keynote addresses at many science conferences. [17] [18]

Awards and honors

In 1999, when the Department of Biotechnology of India instituted the National Bioscience Award for Career Development as one of the prestigious science awards in the country, [19] Umesh Varshney was among the first recipients of the award. [20] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2001, and then in 2014 he was awarded the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology. In 2001, he received the P. S. Sarma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists (India) (SBC). [21] A life member of the SBC, he received the Life Sciences Research Award of Novo Nordisk Education Foundation in 2002 and the year 2008 brought him the elected fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology of India. [4]

Selected bibliography

Notes

  1. Please see Selected bibliography section

Related Research Articles

Souvik Maiti is an Indian chemist known for his studies in the fields of biophysical chemistry and chemical biology focusing on nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. He works at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. He is also visiting scientist at National Chemical Laboratory Pune.

Satish Chandra Maheshwari was an Indian botanist and a former professor at the University of Delhi. He is known for his contributions to the fields of plant physiology and plant molecular biology. Maheshwari is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 1972, for his contributions to biological sciences. He died from lung cancer on June 12, 2019.

Kuppamuthu Dharmalingam is an Indian proteomicist, geneticist, academic and the founder of Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics at Madurai Kamaraj University. He is known for his contributions in the fields of eye disease proteomics and mutagenic DNA repair in Escherichia coli. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 1992, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Alok Bhattacharya is an Indian parasitologist, academic and a professor at the School of Life Sciences of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He chairs the Biotechnology Information System Network (BITSNET) as well as the Life Sciences Expert Committee of FIST program of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy and is known for his studies on Entamoeba histolytica and species-specific calcium binding protein and its gene.

Kalappa Muniyappa is an Indian molecular biologist and geneticist, known for his researches on the chromatization of DNA and gene targeting. He is a professor and chairman of the department of biochemistry of the Indian Institute of Science and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 1995, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Ghanshyam Swarup is an Indian molecular biologist, a J. C. Bose National Fellow and the head of the Ghanshyam Swarup Research Group of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. He is known for his studies on glaucoma and the discovery of protein tyrosine phosphatase, a new protein influencing the regulation of cell proliferation. Swarup is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 1996, for his contributions to biological sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siddhartha Roy</span> Indian scientist (born 1954)

Siddhartha Roy is an Indian structural biologist, biophysicist, former director of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and the former director (officiating) of Bose Institute. Widely known for his studies on bacteriophage lambda and protein synthesis, he is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. In 1999, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, for his contributions to Biological sciences.

Raghavan Varadarajan is an Indian biophysicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his researches in the fields of protein structure and protein folding and his contributions in developing vaccines and drugs for treating a type of fatal influenza and HIV-1. He is a former J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2002, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Tapas Kumar Kundu is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and at present the Director of Central Drug Research Institute, a prestigious research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lucknow. He is the head of the Transcription and Disease Laboratory of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He is known for his studies on the regulation of Gene expression and his contributions in cancer diagnostics and the development of new drug candidates for cancer and AIDS therapeutics. He is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India and a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2005, for his contributions to biological sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology.

Vinod Bhakuni (1962–2011) was an Indian molecular biophysicist and the head of the Molecular and Structural Biology Division of the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI). He was the founder of the Protein Chemistry laboratory of CDRI and was known for his contributions to the study of protein folding. A recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, he was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2006, for his contributions to biological sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale</span> Indian chemical biologist (born 1967)

Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale is a Professor of Biology at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune on lien. Currently, serving as Secretary for Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Government of India from October 2021 onwards. He joined as a faculty in National Institute of Immunology, India after conducting his postdoctoral training at Stanford University, He was the Director of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology from 2009 to 2016. Gokhale is known for his studies on the metabolic diversity of pathogens. He is credited with the discovery of a family of Long-chain Fatty acyl-AMP ligases (FAAL) and his studies assisted in the elucidation of biochemical crosstalk between fatty acid synthases and polyketide synthases in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. He holds US and Indian patents for his invention of Method to Modulate Pigmentation Process in the Melanocytes of Skin. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, he is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2007) and the Indian National Science Academy (2014). The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2006, for his contributions to biological sciences. He received the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2009.

Narayanaswamy Srinivasan was an Indian molecular biophysicist and a professor and the head of Proteins: Structure, Function and Evolutionary Group at the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his researches in the fields of computational genomics and protein structure analysis. An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India, he is a J. C. Bose National fellow of the Department of Biotechnology and a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Science and Technology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2007, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Sanjeev Anant Galande is an Indian cell biologist, epigeneticist, academic, former Chair of Biology and the Dean of Research and Development at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He heads the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. He is the founder of the Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics at IISER Pune and is known for his studies on higher-order chromatin architecture and how it influences spatiotemporal changes in gene expression. He is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2010, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Shantanu Chowdhury is an Indian structural biologist and a professor at Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He is known for developing a mechanism for gene regulation mediated by DNA Secondary-Structure in diverse cellular contexts. An elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, he is a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2010. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2012, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Bhaskar Saha 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. He is an elected fellow of two of the major Indian science academies, National Academy of Sciences, India and Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2009, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Balasubramanian Gopal is an Indian structural biologist, molecular biophysicist and a professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his studies on cell wall synthesis in Staphylococcus aureus and is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2010. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2015, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Suman Kumar Dhar is an Indian molecular biologist and a professor at the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is known for his studies on the DNA replication and cell cycle regulation in Helicobacter pylori and Plasmodium falciparum, two pathogens affecting humans. An elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences, he is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2010. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2012, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya is an Indian molecular biologist, epigeneticist 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 Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santanu Bhattacharya</span> Indian chemical biologist

Santanu Bhattacharya is an Indian chemical biologist and former professor at the Indian Institute of Science. At, present he is the Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati (IISER-Tirupati). He is known for his studies of unnatural amino acids, oligopeptides, designed and natural lipids, gene delivery vehicles, hydro- and organogels, molecular bioanalytic sensors, G-quadruplex DNA binding molecular therapeutics, and biologically active natural product mimics and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy The World Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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 2003, for his contributions to chemical sciences. He is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology (2002) and the TWAS Prize (2010).

Ganesh Nagaraju is an Indian biochemist, geneticist, cancer biologist and a full professor at the Department of Biochemistry of the Indian Institute of Science. He has been studying DNA damage responses in mammalian cells, and mechanisms underlying chromosome instability genetic diseases and cancer. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2015. In 2018, Nagaraju received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Biological Sciences from CSIR. This award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to Science and Technology, and is considered one of the highest awards for science in India.

References

  1. "Why Venky Ramakrishnan is a great scientist". ReDiff News. 8 October 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  3. "Fellow profile - Varshney". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Indian fellow - Varshney". Indian National Science Academy. 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  5. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  6. "In the top league". The Telegraph. 7 December 2015. Archived from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  7. "Prof.Umesh Varshney's Lab". Indian Institute of Science. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  8. "Make science an attractive career". Nature. 521 (7551). Nature.com: 151–155. 13 May 2015. doi: 10.1038/521151a . PMID   25971494. S2CID   4461796.
  9. "Honorary Faculty". Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  10. "Collaborator". Genome Metabolism and Biostruct Laboratory. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  11. "Varshney on Division of Biological Sciences, IISc". Division of Biological Sciences, IISc. 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  12. "Project : Mechanism of protein synthesis; and DNA repair in bacteria". 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  13. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. p. 34. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  14. "Varshney on ResearchGate". Author profile. 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  15. "Varshney on Google Scholar". Author profile. Google Scholar. 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  16. "Varshney on PubFacts". Author profile. PubFacts. 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  17. "Confirmed Speakers". Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. January 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  18. "Homage paid to scientist J.V. Bhat". The Hindu. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  19. "Prestigious bioscience award for IICT scientist". Times of India. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  20. "Awardees for the year 1999" (PDF). Department of Biotechnology. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  21. "SBC booklet" (PDF). Society of Biological Chemists (India). 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2016.