{{Short description|Indian biologist (born 1968)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Use Indian English|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Suman Kumar Dhar | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1968|3|6}} | birth_place = Kalimpong, West Bengal, India | death_date = | death_place = | fields = {{ublist | Parasitology | Molecular biology }} | workplaces = {{ublist | Jawaharlal Nehru University | Harvard Medical School | Harvard School of Public Health | Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine }} | alma_mater = {{ublist | Burdwan University | Kalyani University | Jawaharlal Nehru University | University of Virginia | Harvard Medical School}} | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Studies on Helicobacter pylori and Plasmodium falciparum | awards = {{ublist | 2010 National Bioscience Award for Career Development | 2012 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize }} }}
'''Suman Kumar Dhar''' (born 1968) is an Indian molecular biologist and a professor at the ''Special Centre for Molecular Medicine'' of Jawaharlal Nehru University.<ref name="Winners of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards 2012">{{cite web | url=https://ias.org.in/2012/09/winners-of-shanti-swarup-bhatnagar.html | title=Winners of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards 2012 | publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences | date=28 September 2012 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> He is known for his studies on the DNA replication and cell cycle regulation in Helicobacter pylori and Plasmodium falciparum, two pathogens affecting humans.<ref name="Brief Profile of the Awardee">{{cite web | url=http://ssbprize.gov.in/content/Detail.aspx?AID=139 | title=Brief Profile of the Awardee | publisher=Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize | date=2016 | access-date=5 October 2016}}</ref> An elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy<ref name="Indian fellow">{{cite web | url=http://insaindia.res.in/detail.php?id=P16-1715 | title=Indian fellow | publisher=Indian National Science Academy | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> and the Indian Academy of Sciences,<ref name="Fellow Profile">{{cite web | url=http://www.ias.ac.in/describe/fellow/Dhar,_Prof._Suman_Kumar | title=Fellow Profile | publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> he is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Department of Biotechnology in 2010.<ref name="Awardees of National Bioscience Awards for Career Development">{{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 | publisher=Department of Biotechnology | date=2016 | access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="View Bhatnagar Awardees">{{cite web | url=http://ssbprize.gov.in/Content/AwardeeList.aspx | title=View Bhatnagar Awardees | publisher=Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize | date=2016 | access-date=12 November 2016}}</ref>
== Biography == Suman Kumar Dhar, born on 6 March 1968 in the Indian state of West Bengal, graduated in chemistry from Burdwan University in 1989 and completed his master's degree in biochemistry in 1992 from Kalyani University before securing a PhD in molecular biology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 1998.<ref name="Faculty profile">{{cite web | url=http://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/sdhar/cv.pdf | title=Faculty profile | publisher=Jawaharlal Nehru University | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref>
He worked from 1997 to 1998 as a research assistant at the department of microbiology of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Next, he did his post-doctoral studies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School which he completed in 2001.<ref name="Decoding deadly pathogens - Dr Suman Kumar Dhar">{{cite web | url=http://www.biospectrumindia.com/biospecindia/features/123058/decoding-deadly-pathogens-i-dr-suman-kumar-dhar-i | title=Decoding deadly pathogens - Dr Suman Kumar Dhar | publisher=Biospectrum India | date=12 December 2012 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref>
Returning to India the same year, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University as an assistant professor at the ''Special Centre for Molecular Medicine'' (SCMM) of the university where he rose in ranks to become an associate professor in 2005 and a professor in 2011, finally reaching the position of the chairperson of SCMM in 2011. In between, he served as a visiting fellow at Harvard Medical School from 2002 to 2003), the Harvard School of Public Health from 2003 and 2004, and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in 2007. He also served as a Humboldt Research Fellow at Bernhard Nocht Institute in 2008. Besides his academic duties at JNU, Dhar is involved in the establishment of ''Centre of Excellence in Parasitology'', a Department of Biotechnology-funded project.<ref name="Faculty profile" /> He was also a member of the proctorial committee constituted by JNU to inquire about the 2016 JNU protests.<ref name="Afzal Guru protests: Police slap charges of sedition, conspiracy">{{cite web | url=http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/afzal-guru-protests-police-slap-charges-of-sedition-conspiracy/ | title=Afzal Guru protests: Police slap charges of sedition, conspiracy | publisher=Indian Express | date=12 February 2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref><ref name="Arrest ‘Anti India Elements’ Says Rajnath, So Police Pin ‘Sedition’ on JNUSU Head">{{cite web | url=http://thewire.in/21455/arrest-anti-india-elements-says-rajnath-so-police-pin-sedition-on-jnusu-head/ | title=Arrest 'Anti India Elements' Says Rajnath, So Police Pin 'Sedition' on JNUSU Head | publisher=The Wire | date=13 February 2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref>
== Career == Dhar's research history starts during his graduate studies when he worked on Entamoeba histolytica, the protozoan which causes amoebiasis, focusing on its ribosomal DNA circle.<ref name="Suman Kumar Dhar, Associate Professor and present Chairperson">{{cite web | url=http://www.jnu.ac.in/SCMM/FacultyProfile.asp | title=Suman Kumar Dhar, Associate Professor and present Chairperson | publisher=JNU - SCMM | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> Later at Harvard Medical School, his post-doctoral studies were centered on mammalian DNA replication which assisted him to identify the ORC6 (origin recognition complex subunit six) and its role in viral DNA replication. He also identified geminin, a replication inhibitor, as a blocking factor of viral DNA replication, a discovery which earned him a US patent.<ref name="Faculty profile" /> Later, he studied the human pathogens, Helicobacter pylori and Plasmodium falciparum and their DNA replication and cell cycle regulation.<ref name="Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners">{{cite web | url=http://www.csirhrdg.res.in/ssb.pdf | title=Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners | publisher=Council of Scientific and Industrial Research | date=1999 | access-date=5 October 2016 | pages=34}}</ref> He also worked on anti-malarial drugs and proposed Acriflavine as an anti-malarial agent, which has also been patented by him.<ref name="US Patent Issued to Suman Kumar Dhar on June 28 for Method of Screening Anti-Plasmodial Activity of Acriflavin and Acriflavin as an Anti-Malarial Agent ">{{cite web | url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-4103625881.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911002438/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-4103625881.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=11 September 2018 | title=US Patent Issued to Suman Kumar Dhar on June 28 for "Method of Screening Anti-Plasmodial Activity of Acriflavin and Acriflavin as an Anti-Malarial Agent" | date=28 June 2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> His work has identified PfGyrase for P. falciparum and HpDnaB helicase for H. pylori as targets<ref name="Suman Kumar Dhar on Global Professor Rank">{{cite web | url=https://globalprofessorrank.com/professor/suman-kumar-dhar/jawaharlal-nehru-university-new-delhi | title=Suman Kumar Dhar on Global Professor Rank | publisher=Global Professor Rank | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> and these researches are reported to be helpful in drug discovery efforts for Gastric ulcers, Gastric adenocarcinomas and Malaria.<ref name="Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Sciences - Suman Dhar">{{cite journal | url=https://indiabioscience.org/news/2012/shanti-swarup-bhatnagar-award-in-biological-sciences-suman-dhar | title=Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Sciences - Suman Dhar | author=Ajeena Ramanujan | journal=India Bioscience | date=2 October 2012}}</ref> Dhar has documented his research by way of a number of articles{{Refn|group=note|Please see ''Selected bibliography'' section}} and online repositories such as PubMed<ref name="Dhar on PubMed">{{cite web | url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Dhar%20SK%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=11509178 | title=Dhar on PubMed | publisher=PubMed | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> and Pubfacts have listed many of them.<ref name="Dhar on Pubfacts">{{cite web | url=http://www.pubfacts.com/author/Suman+Kumar+Dhar?tr=1 | title=Dhar on Pubfacts | publisher=Pubfacts | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> He has contributed chapters to three books which include ''Epigenetics: Development and Disease'' by Tapas Kumar Kundu.<ref name="Kundu2012">{{cite book|author=Tapas Kumar Kundu|title=Epigenetics: Development and Disease|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2OBaKOyavwC&pg=PA659|year=2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-007-4525-4|pages=659–}}</ref> He is associated with many science journals such as Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular Microbiology, FEBS Journal and Medical Science Monitor as an ad-hoc reviewer and has delivered featured talks including his oration at the Gordon Research Conference on Host-Parasite interaction held in Rhode Island in 2012.<ref name="Faculty profile" />
== Awards and honors == While in the US, Dhar received two grants for his researches, a grant from the National Institutes of Health for studies on emerging infectious diseases (1997–98) and the United States Department of the Army grant for research on breast cancer (2000–03).<ref name="Faculty profile" /> He received the Senior International Research Fellowship of the Wellcome Trust in 2005, the tenancy of the fellowship extending to 2010, and on its expiry, he received the Wellcome Trust-DBT Senior Research Fellowship in 2010. In 2006, Dhar received the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)<ref name="Swarnajayanthi Fellowship">{{cite web | url=http://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/sjaward06-07.pdf | title=Swarnajayanthi Fellowship | publisher=Department of Biotechnology | date=2006 | access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref> and four years later, DBT honored him again with the 2010 National Bioscience Award for Career Development.<ref name="Awardees of National Bioscience Awards for Career Development" /> He was elected to the Guha Research Conference in 2007 and the next year brought him the Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology.<ref name="SwarnaJayanti Fellowship Awards">{{cite web | url=http://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/sjaward06-07.pdf | title=SwarnaJayanti Fellowship Awards | publisher=Department of Science and Technology | date=2007 | access-date=3 November 2016}}</ref>
A member of the American Society for Microbiology, Dhar was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 2012.<ref name="View Bhatnagar Awardees" /> The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as a fellow in 2011<ref name="NASI fellows">{{cite web | url=http://nasi.nic.in/fellows.asp?RsFilter=D | title=NASI fellows | publisher=National Academy of Sciences, India | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref> and he became a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2016.<ref name="Indian fellow" /><ref name="Fellow Profile" />
== Patents == * {{cite web | url=http://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/sdhar/cv.pdf | title=Geminin and ORC3N Inhibit Replication of Herpes Viruses, Pamiloma Viruses and Polyoma Viruses | publisher=Dhar Suman Kumar | work=Patent No. No. B0801.70253US00 | date=2001 | author=Anindya Dutta, Suman Kumar Dhar}} * {{cite web | url=https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2014030171A1/en | title=Method of screening anti-plasmodial activity of acriflavin and acriflavin as an anti-malarial agent | publisher=Dhar Suman Kumar | work=Patent No. WO2014030171 A1 | date=24 August 2012 |author1=Suman Kumar Dhar |author2=Srikanta Dana |author3=Dhaneswar Prusty |author4=Ashraf Dar |author5=Pritam Mukhopadhyay }}
== Selected bibliography == * {{cite journal | title=Modulation of the enzymatic activities of replicative helicase (DnaB) by interaction with Hp0897: a possible mechanism for helicase loading in Helicobacter pylori |author1=Vijay Verma |author2=Ajay Kumar |author3=Ram Gopal Nitharwal |author4=Jawed Alam |author5=Asish Kumar Mukhopadhyay |author6=Santanu Dasgupta |author7=Suman Kumar Dhar | journal=Nucleic Acids Research | date=December 2014 | doi=10.1093/nar/gkw148 | volume=44 |issue=7 | pages=3288–3303 | pmid=27001508 | pmc=4838378}} * {{cite journal | title=Inhibition of eukaryotic DNA replication by geminin binding to Cdt1 |vauthors=Wohlschlegel JA, Dwyer BT, Dhar SK, Cvetic C, Walter JC, Dutta A | journal=Science | date=December 2000 | volume=290 | issue=5500 | pages=2309–12 | doi=10.1126/science.290.5500.2309 | pmid=11125146|bibcode=2000Sci...290.2309W }} * {{cite journal | title=Xenopus Mcm10 binds to origins of DNA replication after Mcm2-7 and stimulates origin binding of Cdc45. |vauthors=Wohlschlegel JA, Dhar SK, Prokhorova TA, Dutta A, Walter JC | journal=Mol Cell | date=February 2002 | volume=9 | issue=2 | pages=233–40 | pmid=11864598 | doi=10.1016/s1097-2765(02)00456-2| doi-access=free }} * {{cite journal | title=Replication from oriP of Epstein-Barr virus requires human ORC and is inhibited by geminin |vauthors=Dhar SK, Yoshida K, Machida Y, Khaira P, Chaudhuri B, Wohlschlegel JA, Leffak M, Yates J, Dutta A | journal=Cell | date=August 2001 | volume=106 | issue=3 | pages=287–96 | pmid=11509178 | doi=10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00458-5|s2cid=12479646 | doi-access=free }}
== See also == {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * Entamoeba histolytica * Amoebiasis * ORC6 * Geminin * Helicobacter pylori * Plasmodium falciparum * Acriflavine * Tapas Kumar Kundu {{div col end}} {{Portal|India|Biology}}
== Notes == {{Reflist|group=note}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{cite web | url=http://www.jnu.ac.in/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=sdhar | title=Suman Kumar Dhar | publisher=Special Centre for Molecular Medicine - Jawaharlal Nehru University | work=Faculty profile | date=2016 | access-date=2 November 2016}} * {{cite web | url=http://www.pubpdf.com/search/author/Suman+Kumar+Dhar | title=Author: Suman Kumar Dhar | publisher=PubPDF | work=Author listing | date=2016 | access-date=3 November 2016}} * {{cite web | url=http://www.pubfacts.com/author/Suman+Kumar+Dhar?tr=1 | title=Publications Authored by Suman Kumar Dhar | publisher=PubFacts | work=Author profile | date=2016 | access-date=3 November 2016}}
{{SSBPST recipients in Biological Science}} {{N-BIOS Laureates 2010–2019}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhar, Suman Kumar}} Category:Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science Category:N-BIOS Prize recipients Category:1968 births Category:Scientists from West Bengal Category:Living people Category:Indian molecular biologists Category:20th-century Indian inventors Category:University of Burdwan alumni Category:University of Kalyani alumni Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Category:Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University Category:University of Nebraska Medical Center alumni Category:Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty Category:Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Category:Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India Category:20th-century Indian biologists Category:21st-century Indian inventors