Thesis and Guide details:
Details of CSIR Fellowship/ Associateship held, if any or from other sources/ agencies.
Significant foreign assignments:
(a) Significant contributions to science and/ or technology development by the nominee
based on the work done in India during most part of last 5 years:
Dr. Bhattacharyya is a leading microRNA (miRNA) biologist of this country. miRNAs are gene
regulatory small RNAs expressed in metazoan cells that regulate majority of biological processes in
our body. Therefore regulation of their activity and abundance is of pivotal importance in gene
regulatory processes and misexpression of miRNAs are associated with diseases. Dr
Bhattacharyya’s research is concentrated on understanding the mechanism of miRNA activity and
turnover in different types of human cells and to study the pathophysiological consequences of
miRNA deregulation. A major part of his research has been focused on pathogen mediated changes
in miRNA activity in host cells. In this context he has published a pioneering work where he
described how Leishmania donovani, a pathogenic parasite, modulates miRNA-122 in the host liver
during infection and is essential for parasite’s survival in the host. In this work, Dr. Bhattacharyya’s
group has also identified unique therapeutic potential of miRNA-122 against visceral leishmaniasis.
This work, accompanied by a commentary, was published in the Cell press journal Cell Host
Microbe and had received great international appreciation. Working on miRNAs role in immune
response, Dr Bhattacharyya has also identified a transient phase during pro-inflammatory response
when miRNA activities get impaired- a process important for inflammatory response to get induced
in macrophages encountering the pathogens (Mazumder et al. 2013; EMBO Rep). Interestingly,
working with mammalian neuronal cells, his laboratory has also identified a similar phenomenon in
differentiating sympathetic neurons where inactivation of miRNPs is necessary and sufficient for
differentiation of neurons (Patranabis and Bhattacharyya 2016, Mol. Cell. Biol.).
Intercellular transfer of miRNAs is one of the major mechanisms of exchanging these
regulatory small RNAs between mammalian cells and to regulate their activity and stability both in
donor and recipient cells. Dr. Bhattacharyya has contributed significantly in understanding the
regulation of exosome- mediated intercellular miRNA transfer and his work was instrumental in
elucidating the interplay between the growth factors and exosmal export (Basu and Bhattacharyya,
2014, Nucleic Acids Res). In this work, he has described how the extracellular miRNAs and growth
factors reciprocally control the growth of human hepatic cancer cells. In this paper, he also reported
a new approach to curtail growth of cancer cells by exosomal delivery of anti-proliferative miRNAs.
His recent work has revealed how human cells sense their environment and control cellular miRNA
level and activity by exporting excess miRNAs out of the cells to ensure either senescence or
proliferation of mammalian cells (Ghosh et al. 2015, Mol. Biol. Cell). Working on similar line,
exploring the subcellular structures where miRNA-mediated repression and its packaging to
exosomes occurs, Dr. Bhattacharyya has discovered compartmentalization of target mRNAs to
Endoplasmic Reticulum as prerequisite for miRNA mediated repression in mammalian cells
(Barman and Bhattacharyya 2015, J. Biol. Chem.).
The field of research of Dr. Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya is very competitive and extremely
interesting. Considering all these aspects, his research achievement so far has been exceptional and
he has contributed immensely to understand the importance and mechanism of miRNA activity
modulation in mammalian cancer, neuronal and immune cells.
(b) Impact of the contributions in the field concerned:
Basic Biology
Places where work of last 5 years has been referred/ cited in Books, Reviews:
Names of the industries in which the technology (ies) has (have) been used :
The achievements already been recognised by Awards by any learned body:
The Awardee a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy/Indian Academy of Sciences/National
Academy of Sciences/Others:
The Awardee delivered invited lecture(s) in India/abroad and/or chaired any scientific
Internatiional Conference Symposium:
List of Awardee's 10 most significant publications.
List of Awardee's 5 most significant publications during the last 5 years
List of Awardee's 5 most significant publications from out of work done in India
during the last five years:
Complete list of publications in standard refereed journals:
Complete list of publications with foreign collaborators (indicating your status
as author):
List of papers published in Conferences /Symposia/ Seminars, etc:
List of the most outstanding Technical Reports/ Review Articles:
Statement regarding collaboration with scientists abroad:
Dr Suvendra Bhattacharyya has collaborated with Prof. Witold Filipowicz , a renowned RNA
biologist from FMI, Basel, Switzerland in a Indo-Swiss Joint research Project and has
published a paper with co-corresponding authorship. As a part of this collaboration, Dr.
Bhattacharyya visited Filipowicz lab while a student of Prof. Filipowicz visited the lab of Dr.
Bhattacharyya. In this work collaboration was also there with Prof. Nahum Sonenberg, one of
the Pioneer in IRES dependent translation research from McGrill University, Canada, with
whom Dr. Bhattacharyya and Prof Filipowicz shared authorship in one of the review article in
Review in Nature Genetics. This is one of the most cited (over 1800 citation till date) review
article published in this field of research.
Total number of patents granted in last five years.
Details of Books published: