Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Ph.D. is a Bengali-American microbiologist, scientist, and researcher, most notable for his work in directed evolution and his role in developing a genetically engineered organism using plasmid transfer while working at GE. An iconic image of genetic engineering; this autoluminograph from 1986 of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene, illustrating the possibilities of genetic engineering. ... Figure 1: Schematic drawing of a bacterium with plasmids enclosed. ... Ge may refer to: Gê, a group of indigenous Brazilian tribes and their Ge languages Ge (Cyrillic) (Г, г), a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet Ge with upturn (Ґ, ґ), a letter of the Ukrainian alphabet Nikolai Ge, a Russian painter Gē, an ancient Chinese dagger-axe Ge (genus), a genus of butterflies Also...

Education and Home Life

Ananda Chakrabarty was born in the village of Sainthia, Birbhum on April 4, 1938. He attended Sainthia High School, Belur Bidyamandir, and St. Xavier's College, Calcutta in that order, during the course of his undergraduate education. Prof. Chakrabarty received his Ph.D. from the Science College of the University of Calcutta in Kolkata, West Bengal in 1965. He immigrated to the United States in the late 1960's with his wife and son. He has one son and one daughter, and lives in Villa Park, Illinois. Sainthia is a city and a municipality in Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. ... Birbhum district in West Bengal Birbhum (Bengali: বীরভূম) is a district in West Bengal state of India. ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Belur is an neighbourhood on the west bank of the Hooghly River in the district of Howrah, West Bengal, India. ... St. ... Science Colleges were introduced as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. ... Formally established on the 24 January 1857, the University of Calcutta (also known as Calcutta University) (Bengali: কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়), located in the city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta), India, is the first modern university in the Indian subcontinent. ... ,   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly, in English contexts,  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ... West Bengal   (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, Poshchimbôŋgo) is a state in eastern India. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Incorporated Village in 1914. ...

Early Scientific Work

Prof. Chakrabarty genetically engineered a new species of Pseudomonas bacteria ("the oil-eating bacteria") in 1971 while working for the Research & Development Center at General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York.^[1] Species group P. aeruginosa P. alcaligenes P. anguilliseptica P. argentinensis P. citronellolis P. flavescens P. mendocina P. nitroreducens P. oleovorans P. pseudoalcaligenes P. resinovorans P. straminea group P. aurantiaca P. aureofaciens P. chlororaphis P. fragi P. lundensis P. taetrolens group P. antarctica P. azotoformans P. cedrina P. corrugata P. fluorescens... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... Ge may refer to: Gê, a group of indigenous Brazilian tribes and their Ge languages Ge (Cyrillic) (Г, г), a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet Ge with upturn (Ґ, ґ), a letter of the Ukrainian alphabet Nikolai Ge, a Russian painter Gē, an ancient Chinese dagger-axe Ge (genus), a genus of butterflies Also... Schenectady is a city located in Schenectady County, New York, of which it is the county seat. ... NY redirects here. ...

At the time, four known species of oil-metabolizing bacteria were known to exist, but when introduced into an oil spill, competed with each other, limiting the amount of crude oil that they degraded. The genes necessary to degrade oil were carried on plasmids, which could be transferred among species. By irradiating the transformed organism with UV light after plasmid transfer, Prof. Chakrabarty discovered a method for genetic cross-linking that fixed all four plasmid genes in place and produced a new, stable, bacteria species (now called Burkholderia) capable of consuming oil one or two orders of magnitude faster than the previous four strains of oil-eating microbes. The new microbe, which Chakrabarty called "multi-plasmid hydrocarbon-degrading Pseudomonas," could digest about two-thirds of the hydrocarbons that would be found in a typical oil spill. Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... This stylistic schematic diagram shows a gene in relation to the double helix structure of DNA and to a chromosome (right). ... Figure 1 : Schematic drawing of a bacterium with plasmids enclosed. ... Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength shorter than that of the visible region, but longer than that of soft X-rays. ... Species Burkholderia ambifaria Burkholderia andropogonis Burkholderia anthina Burkholderia brasilensis Burkholderia caledonica Burkholderia caribensis Burkholderia caryophylli Burkholderia cenocepacia Burkholderia cepacia Burkholderia cepacia complex Burkholderia dolosa Burkholderia fungorum Burkholderia gladioli Burkholderia glathei Burkholderia glumae Burkholderia graminis Burkholderia hospita Burkholderia kururiensis Burkholderia mallei Burkholderia multivorans Burkholderia phenazinium Burkholderia phymatum Burkholderia phytofirmans Burkholderia plantarii...

The bacteria drew international attention when he applied for a patent -- the first-ever patent for living organism.^[2] He was initially denied the patent by the Patent Office because it was thought that the patent code precluded patents on living organisms. The United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals overturned the decision in Chakrabarty's favor, writing that "the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of the patent law." Sidney A. Diamond, Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court case was argued on March 17, 1980 and decided on June 16, 1980. This patent was granted by the U.S. Supreme Court (Diamond v. Chakrabarty), in a 5-4 decision, when it determined that "A live, human-made micro-organism is patentable subject matter under [Title 35 U.S.C.] 101. Respondent's micro-organism constitutes a "manufacture" or "composition of matter" within that statute." March 17 is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... June 16 is the 167th day of the year (168th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Diamond v. ...

Prof. Chakrabarty’s landmark research has since paved the way for many patents on genetically modified micro-organisms and other life forms, and catapulted him into the international spotlight.^[3] The "oil-eating bacteria" has been used to clean up many toxic oil spills, including the one caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was one of the largest manmade environmental disasters ever to occur at sea, seriously affecting plants and wildlife. ...

Current Work

Currently, his lab is working on elucidating the role of bacterial cupredoxins and cytochromes in cancer regression and arresting cell cycle progression. ^[4] These proteins have been formerly known for their involvement in bacterial electron transport. He has isolated a bacterial protein, azurin with potential antineoplastic properties.^[3][5] He has expanded his lab's work to include multiple microbiological species, including Neisseria, Plasmodia, and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans.^[4] In 2001, Prof. Chakrabarty founded a company, CDG Therapeutics,^[5][3] (incorporated in Delaware) which holds exclusive rights to the patents generated by his work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The University of Illinois owns the rights to the patents but has issued exclusive licences to CDG Therapeutics. He holds a total of five patents.^[3] Copper proteins are proteins that contain one or more copper ions as prosthetic groups. ... Cytochromes are generally membrane-bound proteins that contain heme groups and carry out electron transport. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that take place in an eukaryotic cell between its formation and the moment it replicates itself. ... The electron transfer chain (also called the electron transport chain, or simply electron transport), is a series of protein complexers and lipid messengers spanning the inner mitochondrial membrane that accepts electrons from electron donors such as NADH or succinate, shuttles these electrons from within the mitochondrial matrix across the inner... Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. ... Neisseria is a genus of bacteria, included among the proteobacteria, a large group of gram-negative forms. ... Species Plasmodium berghei Plasmodium brasilianum Plasmodium chabaudi Plasmodium cynomolgi Plasmodium falciparum Plasmodium gallinaceum Plasmodium knowlesi Plasmodium lophurae Plasmodium malariae Plasmodium ovale Plasmodium relictum Plasmodium vivax Plasmodium yoelii etc. ... Microbial corrosion, or bacterial corrosion, is a corrosion caused or promoted by microorganisms, usually chemoautotrophs. ... A Delaware corporation is a corporation chartered in the state of Delaware in the United States. ... The University of Illinois is the set of three public universities in Illinois. ...

Academic Career

He is currently a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Apart from being an eminent scientist, Ananda Chakrabarty has been an advisor to judges, governments, and the UN.^[5] As one of the founding members of a UNIDO Committee that proposed the establishment of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB), he has been a member of its Council of Scientific Advisors ever since.^[2] He has served the U.S. Government This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. ... The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is a public, state-supported research university. ... medicines, see medication and pharmacology. ... This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ... United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is an agency of the United Nations with the mission of helping countries pursue sustainable industrial development, it is a specialist in industrial affairs. ... The ICGEB was promoted by UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) as a centre of excellence for research and training in genetic engineering and biotechnology for the benefit of developing countries. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...

• as a member of NIH Study Sections,
• as a member of the Board on Biology of the National Academy of Science,
• on the Committee on Biotechnology of the National Research Council

He has also served the Stockholm Environment Institute of Sweden. He has been on the Scientific Advisory Board of many academic institutions such as the Michigan Biotechnology Institute, the Montana State University Center for Biofilm Research, the Center for Microbial Ecology at the Michigan State University, and the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network based in Calgary, Canada. Dr. Chakrabarty has also served as a member of NIAG, the NATO Industrial Advisory Group based in Brussels, Belgium. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts, where he participates in judicial education. More recently, he has been involved in international judicial work, serving as a Scientific Advisor for meetings in Hawaii and Ottawa, Canada, organized by the Supreme Court of Canada.^[2] NIH can refer to: National Institutes of Health Norwegian School of Sports Sciences: (Norges idrettshøgskole - NIH) Not Invented Here This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... -1... Nickname: Motto: Onward Location of Calgary within census division number 6, Alberta, Canada. ... NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area  - Region 162 km²  (62. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Motto: Advance Ottawa/Ottawa en avant Location of the City of Ottawa in the Province of Ontario Coordinates: Country Canada Province Ontario Established 1850 as Town of Bytown Incorporated 1855 as City of Ottawa Amalgamated January 1, 2001 Government  - Mayor Larry OBrien  - City Council Ottawa City Council  - Representatives 8... The Supreme Court of Canada (French: Cour suprême du Canada) is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. ...

Legacy and Awards

Dr. Chakrabarty has received many awards, including^[2]

• the ‘Scientist of the Year’ award in 1975 by Industrial Research Organization of the United States,
• the Distinguished Scientist Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency,
• the MERIT Award from NIH,
• the Distinguished Service Award given by the U.S. Army
• the Public Affairs Award awarded by the American Chemical Society, and
• the Procter & Gamble Environmental Biotechnology Award given by the American Society for Microbiology.

For his work in genetic engineering technology, he was awarded the civilian Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2007. EPA redirects here. ... NIH can refer to: National Institutes of Health Norwegian School of Sports Sciences: (Norges idrettshøgskole - NIH) Not Invented Here This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. ... The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is a scientific organization, based in the United States although with over 43,000 members throughout the world. ... An iconic image of genetic engineering; this autoluminograph from 1986 of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene, illustrating the possibilities of genetic engineering. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... In times of armed conflict a civilian is any person who is not a combatant. ... Padma Shri (also spelt Padma Shree, Padmashree, Padma Sree and Padma Sri) is an award given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and public life. ... The Government of India (Hindi: भारत सरकार Bhārat Sarkār), officially referred to as the Union Government, and commonly as Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 28 states and 7 union territories, collectively called the Republic of India. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

Prof. Chakrabarty's career spanned the formative years of the concept of directed evolution to the refinement of plasmid technology essential for genetic engineering. Arguably, this technology has changed the way we live. Even aside from the landmark legal case, his contributions to science make him worthy of his notoriety and accolades.

External Links and References

1. ^ Time Article from 1975
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Biography of Early Work
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Interview with Prof. Chakrabarty
4. ^ ^{a b} Homepage from the UIC Department of Microbiology & Immunology
5. ^ ^{a b c} Article from Wisconsin Technology Network