Chandrima Shaha (born 14 October 1952) is an Indian biologist. , she is the J. C. Bose Chair Distinguished Professor at 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 ...

, Kolkata. She is the former Director and former Professor of Eminence at the National Institute of Immunology. She was the President of

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 ...

(2020–22) and the Vice President (International Affairs) of the same academy (2016–2018). She is an elected fellow of the

World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 100 countries. Its principal aim is t ...

, Indian National Science Academy,

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 ...

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology.

Education

Shaha graduated from the

University of Calcutta 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 ...

and completed her doctoral research in 1980 from the

and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta. For her post doctoral work, she was at the University of Kansas Medical Centre from 1980 to 1982 and then from 1983 to 1984 at the

Population Council The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The Council conducts research in biomedicine, social science, and public health and helps build research capacities in developing countries. One-third of its re ...

, New York City.

Professional life

Shaha has served as Council Member for the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (2016–2017), Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2013–2015) and also as Council member of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (2015–18). She was a member of the editorial board of ‘Scientific Reports’ of

Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in scien ...

, London:‘Spermatogenesis’,

Landes Bioscience Landes Bioscience is an Austin, Texas-based publisher of bioscience journals. ''Cell Cycle'', one of its first two journals, achieved the highest percent increase in total citations in molecular biology and genetics for the period of July–August ...

, Texas and editorial board member of ‘Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology’ of Elsevier, PA, Austin. During her career, she was a member of the Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, Geneva (1990–1992), Switzerland and International Consortium on Male Contraception, New York (1993–1997). She was the Chair of the DBT Task Force on Biotechnology Based Programme for Women (2012–2014), member of Task Force on Human Genetics and Genome Analysis, Task Force on Basic Research in Modern Biology (2015–2017), Department of Biotechnology. She was Member of the Scientific Advisory Board,

Indian Council of Medical Research The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Gove ...

(2013–2016). She is currently the Governing Council member of

IIT Gandhinagar Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (also known as IIT Gandhinagar or IITGN) is a public technical university located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. It has been declared to be an Institute of National Importance by the Government of I ...

and a member of 2018 leadership conclave. She is currently serving as the Member of the Governing Council- ICMR: Executive Council – University of Hyderabad: Governing Council – InStem, Bangalore: Scientific Advisory Group – ICMR: Scientific Advisory Committee – National Institute of Animal Biotechnology: Scientific Advisory Committee – Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Trivandrum. She served on the Scientific Advisory Committee, Life Science Research Board, DRDO (2012–2016).

Research interests

Shaha's research programme is geared towards the understanding of

cell death Cell death is the event of a biological cell ceasing to carry out its functions. This may be the result of the natural process of old cells dying and being replaced by new ones, as in programmed cell death, or may result from factors such as di ...

pathways and cellular defense processes in unicellular and multicellular organisms that have important bearing on designing of therapies for various diseases.

Kala-azar Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar (Hindi: kālā āzār, "black sickness") or "black fever", is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality. Leishmaniasi ...

, a neglected tropical disease remains a huge problem being endemic in certain parts of the country and is caused by the ''

Leishmania ''Leishmania'' () is a genus of parasitic protozoans, single-celled eukaryotic organisms of the trypanosomatid group that are responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. The parasites are transmitted by sandflies of the genus '' Phlebotomus'' ...

'' parasite. Understanding of how parasite death occurs is important as successful killing of the parasite would reduce disease burden. The research demonstrated the ability of the ''Leishmania'' parasite to execute death phenotypes similar to metazoans and experimental evidence demonstrated the involvement of the single mitochondrion in apoptosis like death in one of the earliest eukaryotes. Host-parasite interaction studies show the involvement of Bcl-2 proteins in parasite survival. Other studies with cells having high division index like cancer cells and mammalian germ cells provides insight into the various pathways that are triggered by stress and their functional relevance in cell survival.

Awards and honors

* Dr. SP Ray-Chaudhuri Memorial Lecture Award India (2023) * Dr. SP Ray-Chaudhuri endowment Award Lecture, Society of Cell Biology, India for 2020 (2021). * Biopharma Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2021 * D.P. Burma Memorial Lecture Award - 2019 * Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal, INSA, 2019 * Sectional President, Biological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, 2017 * Elected Council Member, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, 2016 * Elected, Vice-president of the Indian National Science Academy, 2016 * Sunday Standard Devi Award for Excellence in the field of science, 2015 *

Om Prakash Bhasin Award Om Prakash Bhasin Award for Science and Technology is an Indian award, instituted in 1985 to recognize excellence in the areas of science and technology. The award, given individually or collectively to a group, is annual in cycle and carries a p ...

, 2015 * Elected Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy, 2014 * 14th Pushpa Sriramachari Foundation Day Oration Award, ICMR, 2014 * Prof. (Mrs.) Archana Sharma Memorial Award, National Academy of Sciences, 2013 * Chandrakala Hora Memorial Medal, Indian National Science Academy, 2013 * Elected, Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology, 2011 * Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award for Basic Medical Research 2010 * Dr. Darshan Ranganathan Memorial Award, Indian National Science Academy, 2010 * J.C. Bose National Fellowship, Dept. of Science and Technology, 2009 * Elected Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, Delhi, 2008 * Elected Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, 2004 * Department of Biotechnology 'Special Award' on the occasion of DNA discovery, 2003 * Elected Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India 1999 * Shakuntala Amirchand Award of Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, 1992

Selected publications

Book

* ''Captured Moments: A Life of Shambhu Shaha'' by Chandrima Shaha, Seagull Publishers, Calcutta (2000).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaha, Chandrima 1952 births Living people 20th-century Indian biologists University of Calcutta alumni Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Indian immunologists Women scientists from West Bengal TWAS fellows