Umesh Varshney

Umesh Varshney
Born	October 26, 1957 India
Nationality	Indian
Fields	Molecular biology
Institutions	Indian Institute of Science
Alma mater	Jiwaji University G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology University of Calgary Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor	Lashitew Gedamu Hans van de Sande
Known for	Protein synthesis and DNA repair of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Notable awards	1999 N-BIOS Award 2001 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2001 SBC P. S. Sarma Memorial Award 2002 Novo Nordisk Life Sciences Research Award

Umesh Varshney (born 1957) is an Indian molecular biologist, academic and the head of the Prof.Umesh Varshney's Lab at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.^[1] He is a J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and is known for his studies on protein synthesis and DNA repair of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.^[2] An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences^[3] and the Indian National Science Academy, he is also a recipient of the National Bioscience Award for Career Development of the Government of India.^[4] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2001, for his contributions to biological sciences.^[5]

Biography

Umesh Varshney, born on 26 October 1957 in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, graduated in science from Jiwaji University in 1975 and completed his master's degree at G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in 1979.^[4] Moving to Canada, he did his doctoral studies on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and Studentship by Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Foundation (AHFMR) under the guidance of Lashitew Gedamu and secured his doctoral degree from the University of Calgary in 1985. His post-doctoral studies were at the laboratory of Johan Hans van de Sande at the university and, later, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with U. L. R. Bhandary from 1988. Returning to India in 1991, he started his career at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (then known as Centre for Genetic Engineering) of the Indian Institute of Science as an assistant professor where he held various positions as that of an associate professor (1997), a professor (2002) and a dean of the undergraduate programs^[6] and heads the Prof. Umesh Varshney's Lab^[7] while chairing the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science.^[8] In between, he served as an honorary faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research from 1999 to 2014^[9] and is a collaborator of the Genome Metabolism and Biostruct Laboratory, Budapest.^[10]

Legacy

Varhsney's researches are primarily focused on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the protein synthesis and DNA repair of the organism.^[11][12] His researches are known to have assisted in a wider understanding of the biology of mycobacterium, more specifically the interaction between ribosome recycling factor and chryation factor G as well as the uracil excision repair pathway.^[13] These studies are reported to have been aimed at developing newer drug targets and the attenuated strains.^[4] He has detailed his research findings by way of articles published in peer-reviewed journals^{[note 1]} and online scientific article repositories like ResearchGate, Google Scholar and PubFacts have listed many of them.^[14][15][16] He was one of the organizers of the 21st International tRNA Workshop held at Indian Institute of Science in December 2005, has guided several scholars in their doctoral researches^[4] and delivered keynote addresses at many science conferences.^[17][18]

Awards and honors

In 1999, when the Department of Biotechnology of India instituted the National Bioscience Award for Career Development as one of the prestigious science awards in the country,^[19] Umesh Varshney was among the first recipients of the award.^[20] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2001, the same year as he received the P. S. Sarma Memorial Award of the Society of Biological Chemists (India) (SBC.^[21] A life member of the SBC, he received the Life Sciences Research Award of Novo Nordisk Education Foundation in 2002 and the year 2008 brought him the elected fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology of India.^[4]

Selected bibliography

• Sunil Shetty, Umesh Varshney (October 2016). "An evolutionarily conserved element in initiator tRNAs prompts ultimate steps in ribosome maturation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• Sunil Shetty, Riyaz AHMAD Shah, Ullas V. Chembazhi, Shivjee Sah, Umesh Varshney (September 2016). "Two highly conserved features of bacterial initiator tRNAs license them to pass through distinct checkpoints in translation initiation". Nucleic Acids Research. doi:10.1093/nar/gkw854.
• Amandeep Singh, Umesh Varshney, M. Vijayan (September 2016). "Structure of the second Single Stranded DNA Binding protein (SSBb) from Mycobacterium smegmatis". Journal of Structural Biology. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2016.09.012.
• Souvik Bhattacharyya, Umesh Varshney (June 2016). "Evolution of initiator tRNAs and selection of methionine as the initiating amino acid". RNA Biology. 13 (9). doi:10.1080/15476286.2016.1195943.
• Bo Qin, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Takuya Ueda, Umesh Varshney, Knud H Nierhaus (May 2016). "The Termination Phase in Protein Synthesis is not Obligatorily Followed by the RRF/EF-G-Dependent Recycling Phase". Journal of Molecular Biology. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2016.05.019.
• Pau Biak Sang, Thiruneelakantan Srinath, Aravind Goud G Patil, Eui-Jeon Woo, Umesh Varshney (August 2015). "A unique uracil-DNA binding protein of the uracil DNA glycosylase superfamily". Nucleic Acids Research. doi:10.1093/nar/gkv854.
• Srinivas Aluri, Kervin Rex, Umesh Varshney (June 2015). "Simultaneous presence of fhs and purT genes is disadvantageous for the fitness of Escherichia coli growth". FEMS Microbiology Letters. doi:10.1093/femsle/fnv101.

See also

• Protein synthesis
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• Nucleotide excision repair
• Uracil

Notes

1. Please see Selected bibliography section

References

1. "Why Venky Ramakrishnan is a great scientist". ReDiff News. October 8, 2009. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
2. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
3. "Fellow profile - Varshney". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
4. "Indian fellow - Varshney". Indian National Science Academy. 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
5. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
6. "In the top league". The Telegraph. December 7, 2015. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
7. "Prof.Umesh Varshney's Lab". Indian Institute of Science. 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
8. "Make science an attractive career". Nature.com. May 13, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
9. "Honorary Faculty". Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
10. "Collaborator". Genome Metabolism and Biostruct Laboratory. 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
11. "Varshney on Division of Biological Sciences, IISc.". Division of Biological Sciences, IISc. 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
12. "Project : Mechanism of protein synthesis; and DNA repair in bacteria". ResearchGate. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
13. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. p. 34. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
14. "Varshney on ResearchGate". Author profile. ResearchGate. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
15. "Varshney on Google Scholar". Author profile. Google Scholar. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
16. "Varshney on PubFacts". Author profile. PubFacts. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
17. "Confirmed Speakers". Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. January 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
18. "Homage paid to scientist J.V. Bhat". The Hindu. March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
19. "Prestigious bioscience award for IICT scientist". Times of India. March 16, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
20. "Awardees for the year 1999" (PDF). Department of Biotechnology. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
21. "SBC booklet" (PDF). Society of Biological Chemists (India). 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.

External links

• "Umesh Varshney on Meta Science". Author profile. Meta Science. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
• "List of Publications". Article listing. ResearchGate. 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.