Debi Prasad Sarkar

Debi Prasad Sarkar (born 1958) is an Indian biochemist, immunologist, virologist and a former professor of biochemistry at the University of Delhi.^[1][2] He is known for his researches on Sendai virus and for developing reconstituted viral envelopes.^[3] He is an elected fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences,^[4] National Academy of Sciences, India^[5] and Indian National Science Academy.^[6] 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 1998, for his contributions to biological sciences.^[7]

Biography

Debi Prasad Sarkar, born on 15 January 1958, graduated (honours) in chemistry in 1978 and obtained a master's degree in biochemistry in 1980, both from Banaras Hindu University.^[8] His career started as a research assistant at the University of Delhi in 1985, working on Liposomes as immunomodulators and drug delivery using Liposomes and he secured a PhD degree for his thesis, Immunogenicity of carbohydrate determinants mediated through Liposomes: Liposome-mediated drug delivery from the University of Calcutta in 1986. His post-doctoral studies were at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health where he spent two years (1986–88) as visiting fellow and returned to Delhi University to take up the position of a lecturer of biochemistry. He stayed at the university for the rest of his academic career, holding various positions as the senior lecturer (1993–96) and reader (1996–2008), to superannuate as a professor in 2015.^[8]

Legacy

Sarkar's researches on Sendai virus is known to have resulted in the development of reconstituted viral envelopes containing only the fusion protein^[9] and this is reported to have assisted in a more efficient gene delivery in therapeutic use.^[10] He continued his researches while working as an academic and holds patents for his inventions.^[11] Some of the inventions have resulted in Patent Cooperation Treaties (PCT) earning royalties for the university. He has also participated in clinical trials on behalf of the university, including a preclinical study with a Gunn rat model, in collaboration with National Research Development Corporation and AECOM.^[6] He has published his research findings in a number of articles^{[12][note 1]} and has delivered featured lectures on his work.^[13] He has also delivered several award orations including the Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Lecture of the National Academy of Sciences, India in 2011^[14] and the Platinum Jubilee Lecture at the 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress in 2015.^[15]

Awards and honors

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1998.^[7] He received the M. Sreenivasaya Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists (India) in 2005^[16] and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship in 2010.^[17] The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as their fellow in 1996 and the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy followed suit in 2007 and 2011 respectively.^[6]

Selected bibliography

• Debi P Sarkar, Stephen J Morris, Ofer Eidelman, Joshua Zimmerberg, Robert Blumenthal (July 1989). "Initial stages of influenza hemagglutinin-induced cell fusion monitored simultaneously by two fluorescent events: cytoplasmic continuity and lipid mixing.". Journal of cell biology. 109 (1): 113–122.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Membrane Fusion Technique. Gulf Professional Publishing. July 1993. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-0-12-182122-7. 
• Robert Blumenthal, Debi P Sarkar, Stewart Durell, Daniel E Howard, Stephen J Morris (October 1996). "Dilation of the influenza hemagglutinin fusion pore revealed by the kinetics of individual cell-cell fusion events.". Journal of cell biology. 135 (1): 63–71.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Komal Ramani, Roop S Bora, Mukesh Kumar, Sandeep K Tyagi, Debi P Sarkar (March 1997). "Novel gene delivery to liver cells using engineered virosomes". FEBS letters. 404 (2-3): 164–168.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Siddhartha S Jana, Dhruba J Bharali, Prashant Mani, Amarnath Maitra, Chhitar M Gupta, Debi P Sarkar (March 2002). "Targeted cytosolic delivery of hydrogel nanoparticles into HepG2 cells through engineered Sendai viral envelopes". FEBS Letters. 515 (1-3): 184–188.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Debi P Sarkar, Komal Ramani, Sandeep K Tyagi (2002). "Targeted Gene Delivery by Virosomes". Liposome Methods and Protocols: 163–173.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Indu Kohaar, Showket Hussain, Nisha Thakur, Pratibha Tiwari, Vilas Nasare, Swaraj Batra, Veena Singh, Suresh Bhambani, Bhudev C Das, Debi P Sarkar, Mausumi Bharadwaj (April 2009). "Association between human leukocyte antigen class II alleles and human papillomavirus-mediated cervical cancer in Indian women". Human immunology. 70 (4): 222–229.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)

See also

• Viral envelope

Notes

References

External links

• "Debi P Sarkar on Google Scholar". Author profile. Google Scholar. 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2016. 
• "NASI Award Lectures" (PDF). Photo feature. Miranda House. 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2016. 

Further reading

• Ramani K, Hassan Q, Venkaiah B, Hasnain SE, Sarkar DP. (September 1998). "Site-specific gene delivery in vivo through engineered Sendai viral envelopes" (PDF). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95: 11886–11890. PMID 9751760.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)