Amit Prakash Sharma (born April 12, 1968) is an Indian parasitologist and Former Director of National Institute of Malaria Research, New Delhi. He is known for his studies on the disease of malaria and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, The World Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He has been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Sciences, JC Bose Fellowship, Ranbaxy Science Research Award, Infosys Science Award in Biological Sciences, Om Prakash Bhasin Award in Biological Sciences and Lakshmipat Singhania- IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award.

Amit P. Sharma
Born (1968-04-12) April 12, 1968 (age 56)
India
Alma mater
Known forStudies on malaria
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Biography

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Amit Sharma was born on April 12, 1968, in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S. He grew up in New Delhi and attended Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. Later, he went to U.S. for his undergraduate studies to Purdue University, did his master's and PhD at Northwestern University in protein crystallography in 1995. Sharma went on to do his post-doctoral work at St. John's College, Oxford and also served as faculty till 2000. On his return to India in 2004, he joined International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology as a staff scientist. Sharma was the Director of National Institute of Malaria Research in New Delhi from 2019 till 2022.

Legacy

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Life cycle of the malaria parasite

Sharma's research is focused in the field of structural parasitology, and he has carried out advanced research in malaria parasite biology.[1] He led the ICGEB group of scientists who collaborated with the researchers from the Broad Institute who discovered a new compound, bicyclic azetidine, which showed potential against the Plasmodium parasite that caused malaria.[2] His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles.[3] PublicationsList, an online repository of scientific articles, has listed several of them.[4] Sharma has delivered keynote or invited speeches at many conferences[5][6] and sits on the editorial board of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India for Section B - Biological Sciences.[7]

Awards and honors

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The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded Sharma the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2007.[8] He received the Goyal Prize in 2009.[9] In 2011, Sharma was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, in the biological sciences category,[10] He was selected for the Infosys Prize in 2015 for his contribution to life sciences.[11]

The 2015 RCSB PDB Poster Prize of the Asian Crystallographic Association was secured by Vitul Jain for his poster,[12] based on an article, Structure of Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase-Halofuginone Complex Provides Basis for Development of Drugs against Malaria and Toxoplasmosis. which he co-wrote with Sharma.[13]

The National Academy of Sciences, India elected Sharma as a fellow in 2006[14] and he received the elected fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2012.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Awardee Details: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize". ssbprize.gov.in. 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  2. ^ Prasad, R. (2016-09-13). "New single-dose treatment shows promise in anti-malaria battle". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  3. ^ labome.org (2017-12-28). "Amit Sharma on Labome". Archived from the original on 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  4. ^ "Amit Sharma - Publications List". publicationslist.org. 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  5. ^ "2005 Malaria Conference GRC". www.grc.org. 2005. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  6. ^ "Programme - CSIR Foundation Day 2012". sap.csir.res.in. 2012. Archived from the original on 2017-12-29. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  7. ^ "The National Academy of Sciences, India - Editorial". www.nasi.org.in. 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  8. ^ "Awardees of National Bioscience Awards for Career Development" (PDF). Department of Biotechnology. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-04. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
  9. ^ "7 scientists to get Goyal Prize". www.tribuneindia.com. March 13, 2009. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  10. ^ "11 scientists selected for Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award" ibn live, Sep 26, 2011 "11 scientists selected for Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award, IBN Live News". Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
  11. ^ "Amit Sharma, ICGEB New Delhi wins this year's Infosys Award in Life Sciences - ICGEB". www.icgeb.org. Archived from the original on 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  12. ^ Bank, RCSB Protein Data. "RCSB PDB". Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  13. ^ Jain, Vitul; Yogavel, Manickam; Oshima, Yoshiteru; Kikuchi, Haruhisa; Touquet, Bastien; Hakimi, Mohamed-Ali; Sharma, Amit (2015). "Structure of Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase-Halofuginone Complex Provides Basis for Development of Drugs against Malaria and Toxoplasmosis". Structure. 23 (5): 819–829. doi:10.1016/j.str.2015.02.011. PMID 25817387.
  14. ^ "NASI Year Book 2015" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 2017-12-17. Retrieved 2017-12-17.
  15. ^ "Fellowship - Indian Academy of Sciences". www.ias.ac.in. 2017-12-28. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
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