Sujata Sharma is an Indian structural biologist, biophysicist, writer and a professor at the Department of Biophysics of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. She is known for her studies in the fields of protein structure, drug design and drug resistance of bacteria. Her studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 167 of them. She is also the author of the books, "Warriors in White", an autobiographical account of some

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Warriors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi and other leading hospitals of India, including Prof

Randeep Guleria Randeep Guleria is an Indian pulmonologist and the ex-director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, credited with the establishment of India's first centre for pulmonary medicines an ...

, using a combination of

modern medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and Vedic astrology, "The Secret of the Red Crystals", an autobiographical account of her days in AIIMS Delhi. and "A Dragonfly's purpose", which is an autobiographical account of her recovery from an autoimmune disease,

Guillain Barre Syndrome Guillain may refer to: People * Georges Guillain (1876–1961), French neurologist * Gilles Guillain (born 1982), Colombian-born French actor * Robert Guillain (1908–1998), French journalist and author of several books on Japan Medical * ...

. The

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

of the Government of India awarded her the

National Bioscience Award for Career Development The National Bio-science Award for Career Development or N-BIOS Prize is an Indian science award for recognizing excellence and promoting research in bio-sciences disciplines. It was instituted in 1999 by the Department of Biotechnology of the Gov ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions to biosciences, in 2011. She is also a recipient of the Woman Scientist Award of the Biotech Research Society of India and the National Young Woman Bioscientist Award of the Department of Biotechnology which she received in 2006 and 2007 respectively. In 2020, she was awarded the

Kalpana Chawla Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 – 1 February 2003) was an Indian-born American astronaut and mechanical engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' in 199 ...

Excellence award, for her contributions in science. This award is instituted in the memory of the first Indian woman astronaut, Kalpana Chawla to go on space missions.

Contributions in structural biology

Sujata Sharma was the first structural biologist to successfully demonstrate the proteolytic production of N- and C-terminal molecular halves of Lactoferrin, crystallize the C-lobe and determine the three-dimensional structure Her studies have established the fact that lactoferrin has a direct role in chelating the unbound non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which in turn leads to the reduction in the NSAID-induced gastropathy. The studies on the structure determination of

Peptidoglycan Recognition Protein Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) are a group of highly conserved pattern recognition receptors with at least one peptidoglycan recognition domain capable of recognizing the peptidoglycan component of the cell wall of bacteria. They are pr ...

which is a component of the innate immune system and are conserved from insects to mammals, have given a new direction for the development of this protein as a natural protein antibiotic. The structural studies on the

lactoperoxidase Lactoperoxidase is a peroxidase enzyme secreted from mammary, salivary and other mucosal glands including the lungs, bronchii and nose that functions as a natural and the first line of defense against bacteria and viruses. Lactoperoxidase is a m ...

system, that is, lactoperoxidase along with its inorganic ion substrates, hydrogen peroxide, and oxidized products have given new insights into the structure-function interrelationships of this antimicrobial protein. Her structural studies on SPX-40 have demonstrated that the molecule acts as a protective signalling factor for breast cancer cells and have validated this protein as a drug target for breast cancer. She has also been involved in the designing of inhibitors, both small organic and inorganic compounds and peptides, against these protein targets. She has successfully demonstrated the potency of these ligands in several animal models.

Awards and honours

* TWAS Regional Awards in Public Understanding and Popularization of Science in 2021 *

Excellence award in 2020 *

in 2011. * National Young Woman Bioscientist Award of the Department of Biotechnology in 2007 * Woman Scientist Award of the Biotech Research Society of India in 2006

Books

* * *

Notes

References

External links