Subhash Chandra Lakhotia | |
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| Born | (1945-10-04)4 October 1945 (age 80) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Cellular autonomy of the hyperactive male-X fordosage compensation inDrosophila, lifetime contributions to the long-non-coding RNA 93D or thehsromega gene ofDrosophila melanogaster, writings on higher education and research assessment policies |
| Awards | 1975 INSA Young Scientists Medal 1979 UGC Career Award in Sciences 1989 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 1998 UGC J. C. Bose Award 2002 INSA Sunder Lal Hora Medal 2007 BHU Professor CNR Rao Education Foundation Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Prof. Ardhendu Shekhar Mukherjee |
Subhash Chandra Lakhotia (born 4 October 1945) is an Indiancytogeneticist, academic, Distinguished Professor[1] of Zoology, and theScience & Engineering Research Board (SERB) Distinguished Fellow at theBanaras Hindu University.[2] He is known for his pioneering research onDrosophila with regard to its chromosome organization and replication.[3] ARaja Ramanna fellow of theDepartment of Science and Technology and theDepartment of Atomic Energy, he is an elected fellow of all three major Indian science academies:Indian National Science Academy,Indian Academy of Sciences andNational Academy of Sciences, India.[4] He is a Senior Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International (USA). TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989, for his contributions to biological sciences.[5]
Subhash Chandra Lakhotia was born on 4 October 1945 inChuru, a city nearThar Desert in the Indian state ofRajasthan, to Dwarka Prasad-Suryakala couple.[6] He did his early schooling in Churu and then in Kolkata.
He graduated fromVidyasagar College of theCalcutta University in Zoology Honours in 1964 before obtaining his master's degree in Zoology andComparative Anatomy in 1966, both from the Calcutta University.[4] Continuing his doctoral studies at the same university at the Zoology Department, he secured his PhD in 1970. He did his post-doctoral studies atDelhi University during 1970–71 and started his career as a lecturer atBurdwan University in 1971. Moving toGujarat University in June 1972, he stayed there until September 1976 before joining theBanaras Hindu University as a reader. He became a full professor in 1984 and continued there until superannuation in 2010. In between, he carried out some advanced studies at the Institute of Animal Genetics of theUniversity of Edinburgh during 1972-73, at theUniversity of California, Irvine during 1984-85 and atMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge in 1985. After his formal superannuation, he continued his academic activities at the Banaras Hindu University as Emeritus Professor, INSA senior scientist from January 2017 to January 2019[4] and is now working as the life-long Distinguished Professor and SERB Distinguished Fellow.
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Lakhotia's research is focused on cytogenetics,gene expression, cell and developmental biology.[7] He carried out pioneering research onDrosophila (fruit flies) with regards to its chromosome organization and replication, tissue-specific differences in expression ofheat shock proteins, and discovery ofHsp60 inDrosophila. He has carried out life-time studies on the organization and functions of the 93D or thehsromega gene long-non-coding RNA locus ofDrosophila melanogaster.[8] During his doctoral studies ondosage compensation in Drosophila he further confirmed the hyperactive male-X model and elucidated its cellular autonomy.[9] His discovery of active transcription inheterochromatin in Drosophila in early 1970s was one of the first documentations of transcriptional activity of heterochromatin. His later studies revealed the existence of two distinctreplicon types in different cell types of Drosophila.
He has been a pioneer researcher studying the longnon-coding RNAs since 1980s and has contributed significantly to a wider appreciation of their function through sustained studies on thehsromega gene.[8] His laboratory discovered the omega speckles[10] in Drosophila nuclei and established essential functions of the lncRNAs produced by thehsromega gene in organization of the intra-nuclear omega speckles. His studies also helped identify how this lncRNA gene modulatesapoptosis andneurodegeneration in Drosophila models of human diseases.
Since 2008, he established Drosophila as a good model to understand the mechanisms of actions of some of theayurvedic formulations.[11] His studies indicate that the Ayurvedic Amalaki Rasayana and Rasa-Sindoor can substantially suppress neurodegeneration associated withpolyQ and Alzheimer's disorders.
He has published more than 200 original research papers, review articles, and chapters in books, available atPubMed, an online repository of medical articles,[12] and atResearchGate.[13] He has also written more than 100 articles relating to policies on higher education, research publications, their assessment and ethics.
He has mentored more than 35 scholars in their doctoral studies.[4]
Lakhotia contributed to the establishment of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Banaras Hindu University and to the installation of theConfocal microscope facility at his department.[4]
Besides his research contributions, Lakhotia is also well known for his many writings on education.[13] He served as a member of one of the sub-committees of theNational Knowledge Commission, participated in the Committee on Science Education of theInternational Council for Science (ICSU) in 2010 and was a member of its review panel.[14] He was associated with theInternational Union of Biological Sciences, as a member of its executive committee from 2000 to 2003 and later as its vice president from 2003 to 2006.[15] He is a former member of the INSA council, a former vice president,[16] and vice president of its Inter-Academy Exchange Committee.[17] He was the editor-in-chief of its journal (Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy) from January 2014 to December 2018. He has been associated with theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research,University Grants Commission of India,Department of Atomic Energy,Department of Science and Technology andDepartment of Biotechnology as a member of their various committees,[4] and has served or is continuing as a member of the editorial boards of journals such asCurrent Science,Journal of Biosciences,RNA Biology,Cell Stress and Chaperones andAnnals of Neurosciences. He is a life member of the Indian Society of Cell Biology, Indian Society of Developmental Biology, Cell Stress Society International,Genetics Society of America andRNA Society.[18]
Lakhotia received the Young Scientists Medal of theIndian National Science Academy in 1975[19] and the Career Award in Sciences of theUniversity Grants Commission of India (UGC) in 1979. TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989,[5] the same year that he was selected as the National Lecturer by the UGC. The Commission honored him again in 1998 with theJ.C. Bose Award, and he received INSASunder Lal Hora Medal in 2002.[20] The Banaras Hindu University gave him the 2007 ProfessorCNR Rao Education Foundation Award.[18]
Lakhotia has held the Ramanna fellowship of theDepartment of Science and Technology from 2009 and the Raja Ramanna Fellowship of theDepartment of Atomic Energy from 2011. He held the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Fellowship and the Senior Scientist position of the Indian National Science Academy in 2009. He was elected as a fellow by the Indian National Science Academy in 1993, by theIndian Academy of Sciences in 1994[21] and by theNational Academy of Sciences, India in 2002.[22] He was awarded the Joy Gobind Law Memorial Medal ij 2022 by theAsiatic Society, Kolkata.
He has delivered several award lectures, including the 18th G.J.S. Rao Memorial Award Lecture of theIndian Institute of Science in 2011, theArya Bhatta Medal lecture of the Indian National Science Academy (2018)[23] and the IASTAM Zandu International (Indian Citizen) Award for Excellence in Field of Ayurveda and/or Natural Products Award 2019.[24] In 2019, he was awarded the SERB Distinguished Fellowship (2019).[25]
