Amar Nath Bhaduri (12 November 1935 – 6 June 2003) was an Indian molecular enzymologist and chemical biologist, known for his studies on

UDP-glucose 4-epimerase The enzyme UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (), also known as UDP-galactose 4-epimerase or GALE, is a homodimeric epimerase found in bacterial, fungal, plant, and mammalian cells. This enzyme performs the final step in the Leloir pathway of galactose ...

, a homodimeric epimerase found in cells and his work on Leishmania donovani, the protozoal pathogen for Kala-azar. He was the director of the

Indian Institute of Chemical Biology Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) is a biomedical research centre in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established in 1935 as Indian Institute of Experimental Medicine (IIEM), it was inducted under the aegis of the Council of Scientif ...

(IICB), Kolkata and an elected fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

and the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1978, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Amar Nath Bhaduri, born on 12 November 1935 at

Shyambazar Shyambazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The area, under Shyampukur police station of Kolkata Police, has been, along with neighbouring Bagbazar, the citadel of the Bengali aristoc ...

, in northern

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, did his schooling at the

Scottish Church Collegiate School The Scottish Church Collegiate School is a school in north Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the ...

before continuing his college studies at Presidency College and the University College of Science, Technology & Agriculture of

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

. Moving to the US, he secured the degree of Doctor of Science from

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of th ...

in 1964 and after completing his post-doctoral studies at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, returned to India in 1966 to join the

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University ( abbr. JU) is a public state funded research university with its main campus located at Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established on 25 July in 1906 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into ...

as a member of faculty of the department of pharmacy. He served the institution till his move to the

(IICB) in 1985 and superannuated as the director of the institute; in between, he had a short stint at

Roche Institute of Molecular Biology The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology was created on July 14, 1967 when John Burns, then the vice president of research at Hoffman-La Roche, persuaded biochemist Sidney Udenfriend to leave the National Institutes of Health and help him create a ...

during 1975–76. Post his retirement, he continued his association with IICB as an emeritus scientist. He was also serving as an honorary professor at Calcutta and Jadvapur universities when he died on 5 June 2003 at Kolkata, succumbing to age-related illnesses, at the age of 67, survived by his wife, son and daughter. The Indian National Science Academy has documented his life in their ''Biographical Memoirs''.

Legacy

At the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Bhaduri was associated with Paul Srere and worked on

citrate Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relati ...

metabolism and

fatty acid biosynthesis In biochemistry, fatty acid synthesis is the creation of fatty acids from acetyl-CoA and NADPH through the action of enzymes. Two '' de novo'' fatty acid syntheses can be distinguished: cytosolic fatty acid synthesis (FAS/FASI) and mitochondria ...

. It was during his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, he elucidated the effect of

uridine Uridine (symbol U or Urd) is a glycosylated pyrimidine analog containing uracil attached to a ribose ring (or more specifically, a ribofuranose) via a β-N1- glycosidic bond. The analog is one of the five standard nucleosides which make up nuc ...

nucleotides Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

on an epimerase. Later, he continued his researches at Jadavpur University and discovered methodologies for the purification of

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD or G6PDH) () is a cytosolic enzyme that catalysis, catalyzes the chemical reaction : Glucose 6-phosphate, D-glucose 6-phosphate + NADP+ + 6-Phosphogluconolactone, 6-phospho-D-glucono-1,5-lactone + NADPH ...

and for the regulation of

from S. fragilis. His researches revealed that the enzyme was ''

allosterically In the fields of biochemistry and pharmacology an allosteric regulator (or allosteric modulator) is a substance that binds to a site on an enzyme or receptor distinct from the active site, resulting in a conformational change that alters the p ...

activated by metabolically-related

sugar phosphates Sugar phosphates (sugars that have added or substituted phosphate groups) are often used in biological systems to store or transfer energy. They also form the backbone for DNA and RNA. Sugar phosphate backbone geometry is altered in the vicinity o ...

'' and its allosteric kinetics is uni-directional, a property helpful in the regulation of

galactose metabolism Galactose (, '' galacto-'' + ''-ose'', ), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epimer of glucose. A galactose molecule linked wit ...

. He also proposed a protocol for the desensitization of the enzyme by heat, thereby generating hyperbolic kinetics and demonstrated that the addition and dissociation of

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a Cofactor (biochemistry), coenzyme central to metabolism. Found in all living cell (biology), cells, NAD is called a dinucleotide because it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphat ...

activated or de-activated the enzyme. His work was reported to have widened the understanding about the active sites of the enzyme as well as of the molecular mechanisms of allostericity. He studied the host-parasite interaction of

Leishmania donovani ''Leishmania donovani'' is a species of intracellular parasites belonging to the genus ''Leishmania'', a group of haemoflagellate kinetoplastids that cause the disease leishmaniasis. It is a human blood parasite responsible for visceral leishm ...

, a protozoal pathogen affecting humans, and his work attempted to explain the biomodulatory role for

Ca2+ Calcium ions (Ca2+) contribute to the physiology and biochemistry of organisms' cells. They play an important role in signal transduction pathways, where they act as a second messenger, in neurotransmitter release from neurons, in contraction o ...

in the life cycle of the parasite. His researches have been published by way of several articles and he mentored many scholars in their doctoral researches. Bhaduri, who sat in the editorial boards of journals such as the

Journal of Biosciences The ''Journal of Biosciences'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru, India. The current editor-in-chief is Prof. Renee Borges Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. According to the ''Jour ...

from 1986 to 1992 and the ''Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics'' from 1983 to 1991, was a member of the national organizing committee of the

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) is an international non-governmental organisation concerned with biochemistry and molecular biology. Formed in 1955 as the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB), the union ...

(IUBMB) Congress held in New Delhi in 1994. He served as the project director for the UNDP project on ''Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Parasites'' and presided the biochemistry and biophysics section of the

Indian Science Congress Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Calcutta and it meets annually in the first week of January. It h ...

held in

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

in 1990. He was a president of the Institute of Science, Education and Culture (ISEC), Kolkata.

Awards and honors

Bhaduri delivered several award orations including the B. C. Guha Memorial Lecture of the University of Calcutta in 1989. An elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (1986) and the

(1989), he was awarded the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the

in 1979. Indian National Science Academy honored him again with Jagadis Chandra Bose Medal in 1995. He has received DSc (Honaris Causa) from

Burdwan University The University of Burdwan (also known as Burdwan University or B. U.) is a public state university located in Purba Bardhaman, West Bengal, India. It was established by the West Bengal Government as a teaching and affiliating university on ...

in 1995 and his name has been included in the list of 200 illustrious alumni of Presidency University during their Bicentenary celebration.

References

External links

* *

Biography

Legacy

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links

Further reading