Umesh Varshney (born 1957) is an Indian molecular biologist, academician and the head of a laboratory at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

, Bengaluru.He is the recipient of Vigyan Shree award, 2024 from the president of India. He is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and is known for his studies on

protein synthesis Protein biosynthesis, or protein synthesis, is a core biological process, occurring inside cells, balancing the loss of cellular proteins (via degradation or export) through the production of new proteins. Proteins perform a number of critica ...

and DNA repair in ''Escherichia coli'' and

Mycobacterium tuberculosis ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, ''M. tuberculosis'' ha ...

. An elected fellow of 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 ...

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 National Academy of Sciences (India), he is also a recipient of 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 ...

of the Government of India. 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 ...

, 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 2001, and then in 2014 with the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Umesh Varshney, born on 26 October 1957 in the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, graduated in science from

Jiwaji University Jiwaji University (JU) is a public collegiate university in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The name comes from Sir Jiwaijirao Scindia of Gwalior. The university was established on 23 May 1964 and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the President of Ind ...

in 1975 and completed his master's degree at

G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, also known as Pantnagar University, is the first agricultural university established in Independent India. It was inaugurated by Pandit. Jawahar Lal Nehru on 17 November 1960 as the "Uttar Pra ...

in 1979. Moving to Canada, he did his doctoral studies on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and Studentship by Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Foundation (AHFMR) under the guidance of Lashitew Gedamu and secured his doctoral degree from the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

in 1985. His post-doctoral studies were at the laboratory of Johan Hans van de Sande at the university and, later, at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

with U. L. RajBhandary. Returning to India in 1991, he started his career at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (then known as Centre for Genetic Engineering) of the

as an assistant professor, and promoted to associate professor (1997), professor (2002) and dean of the undergraduate programs and heads a laboratory while chairing the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science. He is also an honorary faculty at

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a multidisciplinary research institute located at Jakkur, Bangalore, India. JNCASR was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of Indi ...

since 1999 and is a collaborator of the Genome Metabolism and Biostruct Laboratory, Budapest. He is currently the Chairman of the division of Biological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Legacy

Varhsney's researches are primarily focused in the area of protein synthesis and DNA repair in ''Escherichia'' ''coli'' and ''

''. His researches are known to have assisted in a wider understanding of the biology of mycobacterium, more specifically the interaction between ribosome recycling factor and elongation factor G as well as the

uracil Uracil () (nucleoside#List of nucleosides and corresponding nucleobases, symbol U or Ura) is one of the four nucleotide bases in the nucleic acid RNA. The others are adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). In RNA, uracil binds to adenine via ...

excision repair pathway. These studies are reported to have been aimed at developing newer drug targets and the attenuated strains. He has detailed his research findings by way of articles published in peer-reviewed journals and online scientific article repositories like

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' ...

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

and PubFacts have listed many of them. He was one of the organizers of the 2''1st International tRNA Workshop hel''d at Indian Institute of Science in December 2005, has guided several scholars in their doctoral researches and delivered keynote addresses at many science conferences.

Awards and honors

In 1999, when 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. ...

of India instituted the

as one of the prestigious science awards in the country, Umesh Varshney was among the first recipients of the award. The

awarded him 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 ...

in 2001, and then in 2014 he was awarded the G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology. In 2001, he received the P. S. Sarma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists (India) (SBC). A life member of the SBC, he received the Life Sciences Research Award of

Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, with production facilities in nine countries and affiliates or offices in five. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder Novo Holdings A/S ...

Education Foundation in 2002 and the year 2008 brought him the elected fellowship of the

and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology of India. He was awarded the Vigyan Shri Award under

Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar is a National Award instituted by the Government of India to recognize the contributions of outstanding researchers in the fields of science, technology and innovation. The award has been the subject of controversy becaus ...

scheme in 2024.

Selected bibliography

* * * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Varshney, Umesh Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1957 births Living people Scientists from Madhya Pradesh Jiwaji University alumni University of Calgary alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science Indian molecular biologists Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy N-BIOS Prize recipients 20th-century Indian biologists