Sudha Bhattacharya

Sudha Bhattacharya (born 7 March 1952) is an Indian academic, scientist and a writer. She is recognized primarily for her in-depth study of Entamoeba histolytica, a parasitic protozoan that causes amoebiasis: Dr. Bhattacharya's laboratory first detected Ribosomal RNA genes on Circular DNA, while studying the parasite, and also discovered families of retrotransposons in the parasite genome. Her work has primarily been in the fields of Molecular Parasitology and Gene Regulation.

Bhattacharya is a professor at the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). She is a fellow at The National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science Academy (2014).

Education and career Sudha Bhattacharya attended University of Delhi where she graduated with a BSc.(Hons) degree in Botany in the year 1971 and then proceeded to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi where she obtained her MSc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She completed her post-graduation in 1973 and then, in 1977, earned a Ph. D. for research on regulation of RNA synthesis in Escherichia coli. She has conducted post-doctoral research on bacteriophage genetics at Stanford University (1977–79), bacterial DNA replication at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute (1979-1981) and studied axenic cultivation at the National Institutes of Health (1985–86).

Academic and Research Achievements Dr. Bhattacharya received global acclaim for her novel findings in the field of simple molecular biology of E. Histolytica. Her lab found the existence of ribosomal RNA genes on round DNA, and located families of retrotransposons inside the parasite genome. Study on the replication of rDNA established the existence of replication origins inside the rDNA circle, which were differentially used in response to growth strain. Expression evaluation of rRNA and r-proteins discovered the post-transcriptional regulation of ribosomal biogenesis. Her work on retrotransposons confirmed that retrotransposition is observed by means of excessive frequency recombination- which could contribute to series polymorphism determined in retrotransposons. Her lab also applied the widespread insertion site polymorphism of retrotransposons to broaden a way for pressure typing of E. Histolytica clinical isolates.

Awards and honours

Robert McNamara Fellowship, World Bank (1985)