Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty
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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.
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.
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]
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.
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,
...the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of 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.
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.
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 proprietary information related to five 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.[3]
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
- 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]
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.
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.