Debi Prasad Sarkar, born on 15 January 1958, graduated in chemistry in 1978 and obtained a master's degree in biochemistry in 1980, both from Banaras Hindu University. His career started as a research assistant at the University of Delhi in 1985, working on Liposomes as immunomodulators and drug delivery using Liposomes and he secured a PhD degree for his thesis, Immunogenicity of carbohydrate determinants mediated through Liposomes: Liposome-mediated drug delivery from the University of Delhi in 1986. His post-doctoral studies were at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health where he spent two years as visiting fellow and returned to Delhi University to take up the position of a lecturer of biochemistry. He stayed at the university for the rest of his academic career, holding various positions as the senior lecturer and reader, to superannuate as a professor in 2023.
Legacy
Sarkar's researches on Sendai virus is known to have resulted in the development of reconstituted viral envelopes containing only the fusion protein and this is reported to have assisted in a more efficient gene delivery in therapeutic use. Along with Vijay Kumar, he demonstrated for the first time that HBx protein stimulated Mitogen-activatedsignaling cascades in living animals. He continued his researches while working as an academic and holds patents for his inventions. Some of the inventions have resulted in Patent Cooperation Treaties earning royalties for the university. He has also participated in clinical trials on behalf of the university, including a preclinical study with a Gunn rat model, in collaboration with National Research Development Corporation and AECOM. He has published his research findings in a number of articles and has delivered featured lectures on his work. He has also delivered several award orations including the Prof. B.K. Bachhawat Memorial Lecture of the National Academy of Sciences, India in 2011 and the Platinum Jubilee Lecture at the 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress in 2015.
Awards and honors
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1998. He received the M. Sreenivasaya Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists in 2005 and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship in 2010. The National Academy of Sciences, India elected him as their fellow in 1996 and the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy followed suit in 2007 and 2011 respectively.
