Profile of Dr. B.C. Das
Delhi University
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research
Profile of Dr. B.C. Das
Dr. Bhudev C. Das is Prof. Gurbaksh Singh chair Professor and Director of Dr. B.R Ambedkar Center for Biomedical Research (ACBR) at the University of Delhi. He was formerly Founder Director of Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO), ICMR, Noida. Dr. Das has made outstanding contributions in the field of Cancer Research, Tumor Virology, Human Genetics and Mutation Research. During last 35 years of his distinguished research career he has published more than 165 research papers in reputed international journals and distinguished himself as a renowned molecular oncologist. Dr. Das who earned his Ph.D. degree from Banaras Hindu University in 1982 and later worked several years with Prof. Harald zurHausen, (Nobel Laureate, 2008) and pioneered the work in India on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical and other cancers. His laboratory is the National and WHO Regional HPV Referral Centre in South-East Asia. His major areas of research interest at present are transcriptional regulation of HPV oncogene expression, miRNA expression, cancer drug discovery and cancer stem cell regulation.
So far 21 Ph.D. and 72 MD/MS/DM/DNB students have received their degrees under his supervision and guidance. Dr. Das is the recipient of President’s medal for most prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy National Award of MCI, Sandoz Oration Award of ICMR and a Fellow of International Union Against Cancer (UICC), Geneva. He is Fellow of all major national science and medical academies, (FNA, FASc, FNASc & FAMS). Dr. Das was elected President of Indian Association for Cancer Research (IACR) from 2006-2009. He is a PI and an expert advisor of the Global HPV LabNet & HPV Vaccine Program of WHO, Geneva. Dr. Das has received several other prestigious awards e.g., Ranbaxy Research Award, Dr. P.N. Wahi Award of ICMR, Ramniklal J. Kinarival Cancer Research Award of Gujarat Cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad, Dr. Pran Nath Chhuttani Oration Award of National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), New Delhi. Dr. Das is recipient of the prestigious J.C. Bose National Fellowship (2008-2013). In 2010, Dr. Das has received FICCI Award and SAASCR Award of the Society for American-Asian Scientists in Cancer Research, USA. Dr. is member of Editorial Board/Associate Editor and reviewer of several national and international journals.
Brife Profile Of Dr. B.C. Das |
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| Name | Bhudev Chandra Das, PhDFNASc, FASc, FAMS, FNA, Prof. Gurbaksh Singh Chair Professor & J.C. Bose National Fellow |
| Designation | Director Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR) University of Delhi (North Campus), Delhi – 110 007, INDIA Telephone (off): Tel.: (011)27666259, 27662888(Direct) (011)-27666272, 27666715 Ext. 251, Fax: (011)-27666248, 27666303 (Formerly Founder Director, ICPO-ICMR, Noida) Presently, Honorary Consultant/Scientist ICPO (ICMR), Noida Tel.: (0120) 2575838 (Lab) Email: bcdas48@hotmail.com, dasbc@acbr.du.ac.in directoracbr@gmail.com Website: www.acbrdu.edu |
| Residential address (Permanent) | ‘ANUBHAV’, A-10, Sector – 56,Noida- 201 301,Tel.No.:(0120) 2585511, 4275392 |
| Date & place of Birth | May 1, 1948; Mundamari, Midnapur (East), West Bengal |
| Nationality | Indian |
Field of Specialization
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF CANCER, TUMOR VIROLOGY, HUMAN GENETICS & STEM CELL BIOLOGY
Academic Awards/ Honours received- Sandoz Oration Award of ICMR for Cancer Research for 1992.
- American Cancer Society (ACS) International Fellowship Award, 1994 from International Union Against Cancer (UICC), 1995.
- Fellow of International Union Against Cancer (UICC) since 1996.
- Elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (F.N.A.Sc.), Allahabad, in 1998.
- Received Dr. B.C. Roy National Award and President’s Gold Medal in 1999 by Medical Council of India (MCI), New Delhi.
- Elected as a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (F.A.Sc.) in 2001.
- Recognized as a WHO expert for Global HPV Vaccine Program since 2003.
- Oration Award of Indian Association for Cancer Research, Mumbai in 2004.
- Elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences (F.A.M.S.), New Delhi in 2004.
- Elected as a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy (FNA), New Delhi in 2005.
- Ranbaxy Research Award in Applied Medical Sciences by Ranbaxy Research Foundation for 2005.
- Elected as President of Indian Association for Cancer Research (IACR), 2006-2009.
- Pran Nath Chuttani-ICMR Oration Award of National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) for 2006.
- Ramniklal J. Kinavala Cancer Research Award, of Gujarat Cancer Research Society & Institute, Ahmedabad for 2006.
- Dr. Prem Nath Wahi Award of ICMR in Preventive Oncology for 2006.
- J. C. Bose National Fellowship, August 2008 to July 2013.
- FICCI Award for Innovative R & D in Life Sciences/Applied Research for 2008 – 09.
- SAASCR Award Society of American Asian Scientists in Cancer Research, 2010.
- Prof Kameshwar Sahai Bhargava Oration Award of Indian Virological Society in VIRCON 2012, Mukteshwar.
- July 14-July 22, 2005, Malaysia for attending Inaugural Asia-Oceania Research organization on Genital Infections and Neoplasia (AOGIN).
- August 26-September 2, China for attending International symposium on Esophageal Cancer in Linxian, China.
- July 9- July 16, 2007, German Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, Germany for attending Indo-German Workshop on Cancer Research held in Germany on 13th July 2007.
- Jan 22- Jan 25, 2008, Geneva, Switzerland for attending the WHO HPV meeting, 23-25 Jan 2008, as an Advisor to HPV Vaccine Monitoring Program.
- Jan 25- Jan 27, 2008, Vienna, Austria for visiting the IMP (Research Institute of Molecular Pathology), Vienna.
- Jan. 20 – 23, 2009, Singapore, for attending one day workshop on ST HPV Biochip organized by ST Microelectronics, Science Park, Singapore.
- Nov. 15 – 18, 2009, Poland, for attending a workshop on “Promoting Dual Use Education in Life Sciences” organized by Polish Academy of Sciences, Staszic Palace, Nowy Swiat 72, Warsaw, Poland.
- March 31 – 18 April, 2012, USA, Chicago, for attending Annual Meeting American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) held from 31 March- 4th April, 2012.
- April 5-16, 2012, Visit to National Cancer Institute, NIH, George Washington University, Washington, M.D. Anderson Hospital & Cancer Center, Houston, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City.
| 1 | Total number of Research Papers published | 160 |
| International (Impact factor 2.5 to 25) | 135 | |
| National (indexed journals only) | 25 | |
| 2 | Papers in the process of publication | 10 |
| 3 | No. of Journals/Books edited | 03 |
| 4 | Research Experience | 36 Year |
| 5 | Teaching Experience | 12 Year |
| 6 | U.S PATENT (Application No. – 10/444,988 date May 27, 2003) | 02 |
| 7 | Invited/ plenary talks delivered | 152 |
| Conference/ Symposium attended and paper presented (Abstracts) | 150 | |
| 8 | NO. OF Ph.D. AWARDED | 19 |
| 9 | NO. OF Ph.D. THESIS SUBMITTED | 2 |
| 10 | NO. OF Ph.D. REGISTERED | 9 |
| 11 | NO. OF MD/DM/MS/DNB THESIS COMPLETED ON MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY /MOLECULAR MEDICINE | 68 |
| 12 | NO. OF MD UNDER REGISTRATION | 3 |
| 13 | M.Sc. Project Dissertation work guided | 60 |
| 14 | DST – Sponsored Women Scientist (2003-2006)/RA/ICMR/PDF | 03 |
| 15 | CSIR – Pool Scientist (2002-2005) | 2 |
| 16 | Imparted Training in Molecular biology and medicine | 130 |
| 17 | Organized National Workshops as Course Director for scientists/students for 2 weeks | 3 |
| 18 | DST-sponsored Contact Program on “Basic Molecular Techniques in human Health & Disease” | 1 |
| 19 | Organized International Conference & Workshops | 3 |
| 20 | Extramural Research Project completed as PI and Co-PI | 13 |
| 21 | Indo-foreign Collaborative Research Projects completed (Indo-German, Indo-UK and Indo-US) | 3 |
| 22 | Present Indo-Foreign Project | 4 |
| 23 | On-going research projects as PI: (Total) |
Notable Publications in high impact international journals
NATURE ? LANCET ? NUCLEIC ACID RES ? HUMAN GENETICS ? J. VIROLOGY ? J. GEN. VIROLOGY ? ONCOGENE ? J. MEDICAL VIROLOGY ? CANCER ? J. INFECTIOUS DISEASE ? INT. J. GYNAECOLOGICAL CANCER ? J. MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY ? J. MOLECULAR & CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY ? BREAST CANCER RES. & TREATMENT ? INT. J. CANCER ? FRONTIERS IN BIOSCIENCES ? CHEST ? J. CLIN VIROLOGY ? HEPATOLOGY ? J. HEPATHOLOGY ? MOLECULAR MEDICINE ? J. CLIN. MICROBIOL ? VACCINE ? AMERICAN J. GASTROENTEROLOGY ? BMC CANCER ? MOLECULAR CARCINOGENESIS ? EXPERT REVIEWS IN OBSTET & GYNAECOL ? LUNG CANCER ? MOL CANCER etc.
Major Achievements- Pioneer of HPV research in India and established HPV prevalence in Indian women with cervical cancer as one of the highest (~ 100%) in the world and the most carcinogenic HPV type 16 is exclusively (~90%) high in India. Having made outstanding contribution in the field, he became the Expert Advisor of WHO and his Institute (ICPO) became the National Referral Centre as well as WHO Regional Referral Centre for HPV for whole of South-East Asia.
- Early age of marriage below 18 years and high risk HPV infection have been shown to raise the risk of cervical cancer by 22 fold in Indian women.
- First time demonstrated that HPV infection and cervical cancer increases with the increasing number of pregnancies when viral replication increases significantly due to hormonal influence.
- As many as four novel, but simple, cost-effective and reliable molecular diagnostic methods have been developed for early detection and mass screening of cervical cancer and are being used world over.
- Experimentally as well as in clinical trials an extremely potent anti-HPV property specific synthetic (PDTC) and herbal antioxidative (Curcumin, Praneem, Berberine) agents have been demonstrated and provided clue(s) for development of herbal-based novel chemotherapeutic drugs for cervical cancer.
- A novel ‘Paper Smear’ method has been developed for dry collection, transport and storage of cytological specimens in dry form for a most simple and cost effective screening for HPV in low resource settings. The technique is under US patenting. (No. 10/444,988) and is being processed for commercialization by ICMR following its multicentric validation by the Department of Biotechnology.
- National mapping of HPV in women with cervical cancer and incidence of HPV in young adolescents girls and boys including mapping of HPV in cancers of all organ sites have been accomplished to create national base line data.
- A simple urine testing method has been developed for non-invasive screening for early detection of HPV infection and cervical cancer and also applicable for HPV Vaccine monitoring.
- Unlike cervical cancer high risk HPV 16 infection in Oral Carcinoma has been shown to cause well-differentiated carcinoma which facilitates better prognosis of the disease following treatment. This has help at in developing new therapeutic modality for better management of Head & Neck Cancer.
- Discovered several novel gene mutations in breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 in Indian women with familial breast cancer.
- Infection of Hepatitis E-virus (HEV) that causes severe liver damage, high mortality and develops fulfillment hepatic failure (FHF) in Indian pregnant women, the mechanism of which has been shown to be due to selective suppression of p65 component of NF-kB. This is a new insight to designing novel drugs for this disease.
- Developing Indian variant-specific and cost-effective second generation chimeric HPV DNA Vaccine having both prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy.
- Cervical precancer and cancer stem sells being characterized to develop therapeutic modalities for cervical cancer.
- Validation of several novel HPV screening methods (care HPV etc.) and genetics of differential incidence of breast cancer between urban and rural women are being investigated to develop effective strategies for National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP).
- Developing serum and Saliva miRNA as biomarkers for early detection of breast and oral cancer respectively.
Dr. Das has created a Centre for Excellence in HPV and cervical and other cancer research at the Institute of Cytology & Preventive Oncology (ICMR) in India with all modern basic, clinical and translational research facilities through generating funds from external agencies both national and international. He has strong administrative capabilities and started to work as a Chief of Division of Molecular Oncology since 1989 and became Director of ICPO from 2004-2008 and was managing all intra- and extramural research projects as PI, guiding Ph.D and MD students and carrying out all administrative activities very efficiently. During more than 25 years of his service at ICPO, alongwith scientific work Dr. Das was highly successful in carrying out almost all types of administrative and managerial jobs of the Institute from time to time as Library Incharge, Guest House & Scientists’ flat Incharge, Store Incharge, DDO, Building Committee member, Purchase & Technical Committee Chairperson including Chairman of Departmental enquiry committee and lastly as Director. Dr. Das has been chairman and member of several national committees, vision committees, scientific & ethical committees, sectional committee members of Academys, PRC and selection committee members of ICMR, CSIR, DBT, DST, TMH, Universities etc. In August, 2008, Dr. Das joined Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research, University of Delhi (North Campus), as Prof. Gurbaksh Singh Chair Professor and later became director in 2010.
Dr. Das has a great vision for research and education and is a builder of institutions of national importance. Recently, Dr. Das has introduced two innovative special paper courses in M.Sc. Biomedical Sciences. Besides, he also coordinates undergraduate B.Sc. (Hons.) course in Biomedical Sciences in 3 premier Colleges of Delhi University. He is a member/chairperson of several committees at the University and elsewhere.