Biotechnology

Biography

Utpal Bhadra obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Advanced Cytogenetics from University of Calcutta, India. He received the “Young scientist Award” in 1991 and also received “Nehru Centenary British Fellowship” to continue his doctoral work in UK. He joined as a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. After two years Post doc, he got independent faculty position in University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA during 1995-2000. His lab in Missouri was the pioneer contributor for Gene silencing and RNA interference technology in animals and is the first group to identify RNAi and Gene silencing in Animals. He contributed several milestone findings in the field of Gene silencing and RNA interference. He joined in CCMB as a senior Scientist in 2002 and promoted as a Group Leader within a year. He recently selected as “International Fellow” of “Wellcome Trust organization from UK. He was also selected as a top Young investigator from “Human Frontier Science Program” (funded by G8 countries). He was selected as a fellow for UNESCO and Australian Expert Group of Industrial Study (AEGIS) and recently selected as a Fellow for National Academy of Science, (FNASc) India. His paper ranked in Top Ten papers in ‘Science’ journal in three consecutive years and he selected as Excellent Investigator by the French Academy of Science. He was awarded Ranbaxy Research Award for Medical Science in the year 2011. He also got Life time Achievement Gold Medal Award” by Asso. Biotech. & Phar. (ABAP) (2013) and Dr Radha Krishnan Gold Medal Award – For Outstanding Individual Achievement in Education & Research by GEPRA (2013).

Research Interest

(1) To understand the complete mechanism of gene silencing and its influence on various important biochemical pathways. (2) How we can easily control life threatening animal and plant viruses using gene silencing. (3) A possible interrelationship between RNA, gene silencing, chromatin remodeling and epigenetic regulation.