Subhash Chandra Lakhotia

Subhash Chandra Lakhotia (born 4 October 1945) is an Indian cytogeneticist, academic, Distinguished Professor of Zoology, and the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) Distinguished Fellow at the Banaras Hindu University. He is known for his pioneering research on Drosophila with regard to its chromosome organization and replication. A Raja Ramanna fellow of the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Atomic Energy, he is an elected fellow of all three major Indian science academies: Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences, India. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International (USA). 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 1989, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Subhash Chandra Lakhotia was born on 4 October 1945 in Churu, a city near Thar Desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan, to Dwarka Prasad-Suryakala couple. He did his early schooling in Churu and then in Kolkata.

He graduated from Vidyasagar College of the Calcutta University in Zoology Honours in 1964 before obtaining his master's degree in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in 1966, both from the Calcutta University. He carried out pioneering research on Drosophila (fruit flies) with regards to its chromosome organization and replication, tissue-specific differences in expression of heat shock proteins, and discovery of Hsp60 in Drosophila. He has carried out life-time studies on the organization and functions of the 93D or the hsromega gene long-non-coding RNA locus of Drosophila melanogaster. During his doctoral studies on dosage compensation in Drosophila he further confirmed the hyperactive male-X model and elucidated its cellular autonomy. His discovery of active transcription in heterochromatin in Drosophila in early 1970s was one of the first documentations of transcriptional activity of heterochromatin. His later studies revealed the existence of two distinct replicon types in different cell types of Drosophila.

He has been a pioneer researcher studying the long non-coding RNAs since 1980s and has contributed significantly to a wider appreciation of their function through sustained studies on the hsromega gene. in Drosophila nuclei and established essential functions of the lncRNAs produced by the hsromega gene in organization of the intra-nuclear omega speckles. His studies also helped identify how this lncRNA gene modulates apoptosis and neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of human diseases.

Since 2008, he established Drosophila as a good model to understand the mechanisms of actions of some of the ayurvedic formulations. His studies indicate that the Ayurvedic Amalaki Rasayana and Rasa-Sindoor can substantially suppress neurodegeneration associated with polyQ and Alzheimer's disorders.

He has published more than 200 original research papers, review articles, and chapters in books, available at PubMed, an online repository of medical articles, and at ResearchGate. He has also written more than 100 articles relating to policies on higher education, research publications, their assessment and ethics.

He has mentored more than 35 scholars in their doctoral studies. He was associated with the International Union of Biological Sciences, as a member of its executive committee from 2000 to 2003 and later as its vice president from 2003 to 2006. He is a former member of the INSA council, a former vice president, and vice president of its Inter-Academy Exchange Committee. He was the editor-in-chief of its journal (Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy) from January 2014 to December 2018. He has been associated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, University Grants Commission of India, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology as a member of their various committees,

Awards and honors Lakhotia received the Young Scientists Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1975 and the Career Award in Sciences of the University Grants Commission of India (UGC) in 1979. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989, The Banaras Hindu University gave him the 2007 Professor CNR Rao Education Foundation Award. and by the National Academy of Sciences, India in 2002. He was awarded the Joy Gobind Law Memorial Medal ij 2022 by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.

He has delivered several award lectures, including the 18th G.J.S. Rao Memorial Award Lecture of the Indian Institute of Science in 2011, the Arya Bhatta Medal lecture of the Indian National Science Academy (2018) and the IASTAM Zandu International (Indian Citizen) Award for Excellence in Field of Ayurveda and/or Natural Products Award 2019. In 2019, he was awarded the SERB Distinguished Fellowship (2019).