Sharmila Bhattacharya is an Indian-American scientist who works as the chief scientist for astrobionics and head of the Biomodel Performance and Behavior laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. She is the subject matter expert of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the principal investigator for Biomodel Performance Laboratory of Space Biosciences Division of NASA Ames Research Center. She was part of a project which sent fruit flies into space to study human illnesses and to study the effects of space radiation, both which will help space explorers. She has received the Ames Honor Award the successful launch of the MVP-Fly-01 experiment, 2018, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, 2018, etc.

Early life and education

Sharmila Bhattacharya was born in

Lagos, Nigeria Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

, to Indian parents and grew up

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. She lived on Park Street. Her father, Sukhdeb Bhattacharya, was an Indian Airlines pilot. Sharmila Bhattacharya did her schooling from La Martiniere for Girls and Loreto House. After getting a bachelor's degree in Human Physiology in Presidency College, Kolkata and Biological Chemistry from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, she started her career out as an undergraduate research assistant in the

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

lab at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

.Meet:Sharmila Bhattacharya
NASA After that she earned her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and Ph.D. at

for her research in

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, where she studied the

signal transduction Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...

pathway for the ras oncogene in ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae''. She then went on to do her post-doctoral research at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in Neurobiology.

Career

Soon after completing her research at Stanford, she was awarded a job by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

to work at the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Ames Research Center. She was the principal investigator for the space shuttle flight experiment, Fungal Pathogenesis, Tumorigenesis, and Effects of Host Immunity in Space (FIT), which flew on STS-121 on July 4, 2006. She was later promoted to the spot of chief scientist for astrobionics at the NASA Ames Research Center. Her research at NASA has involved studying immune system changes during spaceflight and the effects of radiation and altered gravity on living systems. Sharmila was also the lecturer of neurobiology in

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

in 1998. She was the lead scientist on several projects of NASA Ames Research Center.

Selected papers

*S. Bhattacharya, Heavner ME, Ramroop J, Gueguen G, Ramrattan G, Dolios G, Scarpati M, Kwiat J, Wang R, Singh S, Govind S (2017). Novel Organelles with Elements of Bacterial and Eukaryotic Secretion Systems Weaponize Parasites of Drosophila. Current Biology. 2017 Sep 7. *Straume T, Slaba T, Bhattacharya S, Braby LA. Radiation Information for Designing and Interpreting Biological Experiments Onboard Missions Beyond Low Earth Orbit (2017). *Hosamani R, Leib R, Bhardwaj SR, Adams CM, Bhattacharya S (2016). Elucidating the “Gravome”: Quantitative Proteomic Profiling of the Response to Chronic Hypergravity in Drosophila. Journal of proteome research. 2016 Oct 10;15(12):4165-75. *''Developing New Habitats for Life Science Experiments on the International Space Station'' Directory
Stanford University * T.Fahlen, M. Sanchez, M.Lera, E.Blazevic, J.Chang, and S.Bhattacharya (2006). A Study of the Effects of Spaceflight on the Immune Response in Drosophila melanogaster. Gravitational and Space Biol. 19(2):133 * S. Bhattacharya, B.A. Stewart, B.A. Niemeyer, R.W. Burgess, B.D.McCabe, P.Lin, G.Boulianne, C.J. O’Kane, & T.L. Schwarz (2002). Members of the Synaptobrevin/VAMP family in Drosophila are functionally interchangeable in vivo for neurotransmitter release and cell viability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99(21):13867-13872. * S. Bhattacharya, R.Bowman, F.Donovan, B.Girten, E.Hill, M.Kirven-Brooks, O.Santos (2001). The Space Station Biological Research Project: Habitat Development and Capabilities. Publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, #2001-4984: 1-11. * F.S. Neumann-Silberberg, S. Bhattacharya, & J.R. Broach (1995). Nutrient Availability and RAS/cAMP Both Induce Expression of Ribosomal Protein Genes in Saccharomyces but by Different Mechanisms. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 15: 3187-3196. * S. Bhattacharya, L. Chen, J.R. Broach, & S. Powers (1995). Ras Membrane Targeting is Essential for Glucose Signaling but not for Viability in Yeast. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 92: 2984-2988

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharya, Sharmila 1964 births Bengali Hindus 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis Bengali chemists Living people Indian expatriates in Nigeria Scientists from Kolkata Indian emigrants to the United States American people of Indian descent American people of Bengali descent American Hindus Bengali scientists Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Wellesley College alumni Princeton University alumni Stanford University alumni Indian biochemists Indian women biochemists Indian women chemists American women biochemists American women chemists 20th-century Indian chemists 20th-century Indian biologists 20th-century Indian women scientists 20th-century American biochemists 20th-century American women scientists