Narinder Kumar Mehra | |
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 Narinder Mehra at INSA, 2022. | |
| Born | (1949-11-04)4 November 1949 (age 75) |
| Nationality | Indian |
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| Known for | Studies onHistocompatibility and Immunogenetics |
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Narinder Kumar Mehra (born 4 November 1949) is an Indianimmunologist, head of the department of transplant immunology and immunogenetics of theSRL Limited,Gurgaon. He is a former dean of research and holds theICMR Dr. C.G. Pandit National Chair at AIIMS. An elected fellow of the International Medical Sciences Academy,The World Academy of Sciences,Indian National Science Academy andNational Academy of Sciences, India, Mehra is known for his research onhistocompatibility andimmunogenetics. 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 for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1992. He received theChevalier of the National Order of Merit fromFrançois Mitterrand in 2003.
Born on 4 November 1949 inAmritsar, in the Indian state ofPunjab, Mehra did his schooling atBishop Cotton School, Simla[1] and earned his graduate degree (BSc) with human anatomy, physiology and biochemistry as optional subjects fromGovernment Medical College, Amritsar in 1969 before moving to Delhi to complete his master's degree (MSc) in human anatomy at theAll India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi (AIIMS).[2] He continued at AIIMS for his doctoral studies and after securing a PhD in 1975[3] on the immunology of leprosy, did post-doctoral work onhistocompatibility andimmunogenetics at the laboratory ofJon van Rood in the Netherlands and later with John A. Hansen atFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. On his return to India, he joined his alma mater, AIIMS, as a pool officer in 1977.[4] In 1979, he was elevated to lecturer with the additional responsibility of the clinical and research activities of the Histocompatibility Laboratory established under the Department of Anatomy in 1977, the year he joined AIIMS.[5] In 1993, the laboratory, which served as thecore laboratory in India for workshops on histocompatibility as well as a base for researches onhuman leukocyte antigen (HLA), was upgraded to a full-fledged department under the name "Department of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics", which he headed as its founding chair, in the capacity of a professor and served out his career at AIIMS in that position. He also served as the member secretary of the Research Advisory Council[6] and chaired the Dean's Research Committee (DRC) at AIIMS.[7] At the time of his official retirement from service in 2004, he was serving as the Dean of Research and post-retirement, he holds the Dr. C. G. Pandit National Chair of theIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at AIIMS,[8] continuing his research at the institution.[9]
Mehra resides in AIIMS Campus, in Ansari Nagar,New Delhi.[10]
Mehra, whose research has covered various aspects of histocompatibility and immunogenetics,[11] started his work on the subjects during his post-doctoral days in Europe, and at John Hansen's laboratory in Seattle, where he used DNA-based technologies of HLA analysis to study the immunogenetic aspects ofrheumatoid arthritis.[2] Later, in India, he studied HLA-linked genes and identified that a subtype ofHLA-DR2 carried a unique class II haplotype which made humans susceptible to diseases such asleprosy andtuberculosis.[12] He also differentiated the Indian rheumatoid arthritis and insulin-dependentdiabetes mellitus patients from the Western Caucasian patients by demonstrating that the former showed a pattern ofHLA-DR andHLA-DQ association and these studies helped in characterizing the Indian population with regard to its genomic diversity.[13] His group demonstrated that HLA genes with specific pockets in the peptide binding region controlled the severity of mycobacterial diseases, which was a first-time discovery.[2] Together with Ajay Kumar Baranwal of AIIMS Delhi and Brian D. Tait of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, he carried out a research project,Antibody Repertoire and graft outcome following solid organ transplantation,[14] which assisted in the prediction ofgraft rejection and had significance inorgan andbone marrow transplantation.[2] He also guided a team of scientists in a project based on polymorphic immunomodulatory genes for developing molecular medicine to combat infectious, autoimmune and rheumatological diseases.[15] His research has been published by way of over 450 articles;[16][note 1] of which 287 are listed byResearchGate.[17] Besides, he has published a book,The HLA Complex in Biology and Medicine: A Resource Book,[18] and has contributed chapters to books published by other researchers,[19][20][21] includingTextbook of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Allied and Molecular Medicine.[22] His researches have been cited by many authors, too.[17][23][24][25][26]
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi established a Histocompatibility Laboratory under its Department of Anatomy in 1977, the year Mehra joined as a pool officer at the institution.[5] Subsequently, he took over the activities of the laboratory and by the time he was promoted to professor in 1993, the laboratory had developed into a referral centre as well as a core laboratory for histocompatibility workshops and AIIMS elevated its status to an independent department, the Department of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics, with Mehra as its founding chair.[2][5] Under the aegis of the new department and in association with Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti,[27] he established the firstAsian Indian Donor Marrow Registry (AIDMR), a database of the donors of bone marrow in India in 1994.[28][29][30] He would later explain the details of the registry through an article,Asian Indian donor marrow registry: All India Institute of Medical Sciences experience, published inTransplantation Proceedings in 2007.[31] He has delivered a number of keynote addresses or invited lectures includingMedIndia 2003[32] 2013 seminar of human genomics at theGuru Nanak Dev University,[33] 2016 India-Japan Regulatory Symposium,[34] and a Guest lecture series organized byManipur University in 2016.[35] He has also mentored around 60 masters and doctoral research scholars in their studies.[28]
Mehra is the founding president of the Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia Oceania (FIMSA) and has served as its vice president thereafter.[36] He was also the organizer of the Advanced Course on Basic and Translational Immunology, conducted by FIMSA in collaboration with theInternational Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and Indian Immunology Society (IIS) in March 2012;[37] he has also served as a member of the council of IUIS.[36] He presides over the Indian Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics and was a member of the faculty of the 2016 edition of ISHICON held in December 2016 atPostgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research,Chandigarh.[38] He sits on the National Board of Advisors of theCenter for Stem Cell Science,[39] and the Advisory Board ofIndus Foundation[40] and is a trustee of the Board ofImmunology Foundation[41] as well as a member of the Publication Advisory Board of theIndian National Science Academy.[42]
Mehra sits on the editorial board ofHLA (journal) (formerly known asTissue Antigens)[43] and is a member of the International Advisory Board ofWiley's journalModern Rheumatology.[44] He has been associated with journals such asMicrobes and Infection ofPasteur Institute, Paris,International journal of Human Genetics andJournal of Clinical Immunology ofSpringer, as a member of their editorial boards.[45] He is a former member of theELSI Committee of theType 1 Diabetes Genetics consortium (T1DGC) of theNational Institutes of Health and a former vice president of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT). The invited speeches delivered by him include the first scientific meeting of Allergy and Immunology Society of Sri Lanka (ALSSL) and the Braunschweig Streptococcal colloquium.[45] He has also been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Jalma Institute of Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Task Force on Human Genetics and Human Genome Analysis ofDepartment of Biotechnology and the Task Force on Human Genetics of theIndian Council of Medical Research.[46]
Mehra received the H. J. Mehta Gold Medal in 1977 and the Shakuntala Amir Chand Prize of the Indian Council of Medical Research in 1983.[47] TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded himShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 1992.[48] In 1995, he received theSher-I-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Award and Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award the next year.[28] Om Prash Bhasin Foundation awarded him the annualOm Prakash Bhasin Award in 2000[49] and he received theChevalier of the National Order of Merit of the Government of France from François Mitterrand in 2003;[50] the same year as he received the Chief of the Army Staff Award.[45] A year later, the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) of the Government of Iran awarded him the 2004Khwarizmi International Award.[51] and he received the Basanti Devi Amir Chand Prize of the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2004.[52][47] The Indian Council of Medical Research honored him again with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centenary Award for excellence in biomedical research in 2011.[29][53]
TheNational Academy of Sciences, India elected Mehra as a fellow in 1998[54] and he became a fellow of theIndian National Science Academy in 2008.[55] In between, he received the Tata Innovation Fellowship of theDepartment of Biotechnology in 2007.[2] The year 2013 brought him the elected fellowship ofThe World Academy of Sciences[56] as well as thehonoris causa membership of theHungarian Academy of Sciences.[57] He is also a fellow of the International Medical Sciences Academy, Delhi.[58] The award orations delivered by him include the IRA-Boots Oration of 1983,Guru Nanak Dev University Prof G.S. Randhawa Oration of 1996,[59] and theICMR JALMA Trust Foundation Award Oration of 1999.[60]
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