Kumaravel Somasundaram | |
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| Born | (1962-10-08)8 October 1962 (age 63) Tamil Nadu, India |
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| Known for | Studies onGlioblastoma |
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Kumaravel Somasundaram (Born: 8 October 1962) is an Indian cancer biologist and a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of theIndian Institute of Science. Known for his studies on the therapeutics ofGlioblastoma, Somasunderam is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely, theNational Academy of Sciences, India, theIndian Academy of Sciences and theIndian National Science Academy. TheDepartment of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him theNational Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2006.
Kumaravel Somasundaram, born on 8 October 1962[1] in the south Indian state ofTamil Nadu, graduated in veterinary medicine from theMadras Veterinary College and did his post-graduate studies at theMadurai Kamaraj University to earn an MSc in biotechnology.[2] He continued at the university for his doctoral studies under the guidance ofKuppamuthu Dharmalingam and after securing a PhD, he moved to the US for his post-doctoral work which he did, first under Bayar Thimmapaya at theNorthwestern University Medical School during 1993–95 and later, at theHoward Hughes Medical Institute of theUniversity of Pennsylvania, working onDNA tumor viruses andtumor suppressor genes, supervised byWafik El-Deiry from 1995 to 1999. On his return to India, he joined theIndian Institute of Science (IISc) as a member of faculty at the division of biological sciences, subsequently became an associate professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology[3] and continues his association with IISc, serving as a professor.[4][5] He also heads the research group, popularly known asProf. Kumar Somasundaram's Lab.[6]
Somasundaram resides in IISc housing colony inBengaluru,Karnataka.[7]
Somasundaram's work is centered around the studies ofoncoviruses,tumor suppressor genes,gliomas andmicroRNAs and he has done advanced research onglioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer affecting the brain.[8][9] The group led by him is engaged in work concerning the determination of the role ofcellular tumor antigen p53 in glioma, regulating the protein,p73 incervical cancer patients, usingAdenovirus early region 1A, atumor suppressor gene, the analytical study ofBRCA1 gene inbreast cancer and the analysis and regulation ofSV2A, asynaptic vesicle protein.[3] He demonstrated thatglioblastoma spreads rapidly by producingmacrophage colony-stimulating factor (MCSF) in large quantities which in turn stimulate the growth of blood vessels in the tumor.[10] He proposed that the MCSF interacted with the anti-tumormicroglial cells of the human body and induced them to produceInsulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 (IGFBP1), thereby impairing the capacity of microglial cells to fight the tumor cells, a process he calledbefriending. The discovery of this new molecule, IGFBP1 and its role in gliomaangiogenesis, led to a collaborative investigation which involved four research institutions namelyNational Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences,Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences and Institute for Functional Genomics (INSERM) of theUniversity of Montpellier, apart from the IISc.[11] The research team led by Somasundaram and Phillipe Marin of INSERM validated the earlier findings and proposed a new therapeutic protocol for glioblastoma which targeted IGFBP1, rather thanVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) which earlier treatment methods attacked.[12] The researchers, later, released their findings through a paper,Glioblastoma-derived Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (MCSF) Induces Microglial Release of Insulin-like Growth Factor-Binding Protein 1 (IGFBP1) to Promote Angiogenesis, published in theJournal of Biological Chemistry.[13] Work is in progress at his laboratory for developingbiomarkers (twenty genes of which is named gene X, have already been discovered)[14] for which detailed study is being conducted onmicroRNA,DNA methylation, modifications ofchromatin andgene fusions.[4][15] His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles[16][17][note 1] andResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 178 of them.[18] He has also conducted workshops[19][20][21] including theWorkshop on Next Generation Sequencing organized by theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research in November 2013[22] and has delivered invited or plenary speeches at various conferences and seminars[23] and the 5th annual meeting of the Proteomics Society, India held in September 2013 was one among them.[24]
Somasundaram is credited with the establishment of the first laboratory formolecular oncology at the IISc and his contributions are also reported in the establishment of a facility forgenomics at the institute.[2] He has undertaken many research programs in cancer biology which included the IISC initiative on Cancer Biology and Therapeutics. He serves as the principal investigator of the Genomics Programme of the IISc in collaboration with the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) of theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and is the co-convener of theDBT - IISc Partnership Program for Advanced Research in Biological Sciences and Bio Engineering.[25] He is a member of theDBT Neurobiology Task force of theDepartment of Biotechnology,[26] sits in the editorial board of theCancer Biology and Therapy [de] journal published byTaylor & Francis[27] and is a former member of the senate of the Indian Institute of Science.[28]
Somasundaram received the International Senior Research Fellowship of theWellcome Trust in 2004.[2] TheDepartment of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him theNational Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2006.[29] TheIndian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 2007[30] and he received the elected fellowship of theNational Academy of Sciences, India, the same year.[31] The other major Indian science academy, theIndian National Science Academy elected him to fellowship in 2009.[32]
Authority control databases: Academics |
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