Fax: 91-33-2370-5066

2.             Scholastic Record

Title of M.Sc. dissertation

A review on L-asparaginase production in microorganisms and studies on L-asparaginase activity in estuarine fungi (Supervisor: Dr. D. Chandramohan)

Title of Ph.D. thesis

Studies on ecology, serology and taxonomy of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and allied vibrios from estuarine and neritic environs of Porto Novo (Supervisor:  Professor R. Natarajan)

Post-doctoral training and research (International)

3.                   Employment record

4.             Other participation

·          Participated as co-convener of the Public Health Microbiology session at the Third International Symposium on Microbial Ecology held at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA, August 6-12, 1983 (sponsored by UNEP).

·          Participated in the Second International Workshop on Campylobacter Infections, Free University of Brussels, Belgium,  September 6-9, 1983 (Sponsored by Organizers).

·          Participated in the IUMS Congress : Bacteriology and Mycology, held in Osaka, Japan, September 16-22, 1990 (Sponsored by the Organizers)

·          Participated in the 28th Joint Conference on Cholera and Related Diarrhoeal Diseases held in Tokyo between July 20 and 21, 1992. (Sponsored by the Organizers)

·          Participated as an invited speaker in the symposium on the Rapid Identification of Enteropathogens convened at the XIIIth International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria held in Jomtien, Pattaya, Thailand between November 29 and December 4, 1992.

·          Visited on invitation the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh from February 14 to February 18, 1993.

·          Delivered a special lecture entitled `Pattern of dissemination of Vibrio cholerae O139 bengal in India and comparison between the phenotypic and genotypic traits of serogroups O1 and O139' at the 35th Annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Tropical Medicine held at Nara between November 13 and 14, 1993.

·          Delivered a key note address entitled `Biochemical, physiological, serological, toxigenicity and molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal, the new pandemic strain of cholera' at the Second meeting of the Kansai Branch of the Japanese Society of Bacteriology held at Nara between November 16 and 17, 1993.

·          Participated as an invited speaker in the 29th US-Japan Conference on Cholera and Related Diarrhoeal Diseases held between December 1 and 3, 1993 at Asilomar, California, USA.

·          Participated as a temporary advisor at the WHO Inter-country consultative meeting of National CDD Programme managers and Government Representative on Cholera held at Dhaka, Bangladesh between January 17 and 20, 1994.

·          Delivered a special invited lecture entitled "Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal" at the session on Emerging Infections during the 68th meeting of the Japanese Society of Bacteriology held at Kyoto Prefecture between March 24 and March 27, 1995 [Abstract of talk in Jap. J. Bacteriol. 50(1): 65].

·          Attended the IUMS Executive Board Meeting held at Helsinki, Finland between April 22 and 23, 1995 and was appointed as the Liaison person between IUMS and MIRCENS.

·          Invited talk delivered at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan on May 20, 1995. Title of Talk : Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal

·          Delivered an invited talk at the Conference on Emerging Areas in Science and Technology (EAST) in Biological Sciences held at RRC, Jorhat during October 18 to 20, 1995. Title of Talk : Molecular epidemiology of cholera : the elasticity of V.cholerae O1 ElTor biotype genome.

·          Delivered an invited talk at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Jadavpur, Calcutta. Title of Talk: Vibrio cholerae adapted : a non-conformists viewpoint.

·          Participated at the International Symposium on Trends in Microbiology held at Calcutta during December 5 to 8, 1995 and delivered an invited talk entitled "The genetic elasticity of the ElTor biotype of Vibrio cholerae O1 : a plausible explanation for the unpredictability of cholera".

·          Delivered an invited talk at the 8th Kerala Science Congress organized by the State Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, Kerala on January 27, 1996. Title of talk : Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal : Origin, spread and aftermath.

·          Attended the IUMS EB Meeting held at Jerusalem, Israel between August 16 and 17, 1996.

·          Attended the 8th International IUMS Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology Divisions held at Jerusalem, Israel between August 18 and 23, 1996 and delivered a talk entitled "Shifting trends in the etiology of cholera" at the Mini-Symposium entitled "Comeback of old diseases".

·          Attended the 32nd Joint Conference US-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Programme held at the Nagasaki University, Japan between November 13 and 14, 1996.

·          Delivered a special invited lecture entitled "Vibrio cholerae O139 : origin, spread and aftermath" at the XIV International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria held at Nagasaki, Japan between November 17 and 22, 1996.

·          Participated in the IUMS EB meeting held at Sydney, Australia between July 25 and 27, 1997.

·          Delivered an invited talk at the Symposium on Biotechnology, Health and Environment during 85th Session of Indian Science Congress organized by the Osmania University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, January 7, 1998. Title of talk : Molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae in India.

·          Delivered a special invited lecture entitled "Molecular shifts in emerging clones of Vibrio cholerae and its significance in the persistence of cholera" at Prof. S.C. Mahalanabis Oration of the Physiological Society of India in 85th Session of Indian Science Congress, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, January 7, 1998.

·          Participated in the IUMS EB meeting held at CDC, Atlanta, USA on May 22, 1998.

·          Attended the Fifth Annual Symposium of the Ranbaxy Science Foundation on Molecular Intervention in Disease and presented the invited paper entitled “Molecular Shifts within clonal populations of Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 and its impact on the persistence and spread of cholera” held in New Delhi on October 31, 1998.

·          Attended the International Symposium on Biotechnological approaches to bacterial and parasitic Diseases held between November 4 to 6, 1998 at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta and presented an invited paper entitled “Molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae in Calcutta” on November 5, 1998.

·          Attended the Symposium on Biotechnology for Health, Agriculture and Environment held between November 10 to 12, 1998 at the Indian Science Congress Association, Calcutta and presented an invited paper entitled “Pursuit of emerging diarrhoeagenic Vibrios using the molecular approach” on November 10, 1998.

·          Presented paper entitled “Molecular Ecology of Vibrio cholerae: Occurrence and implication of virulence genes in environmental strains of V. cholerae” on November 30, 1998 at the Thirty-fourth Joint Conference on cholera and other bacterial enteric infections panel held at Shonan Village, Japan between November 30 and December 2, 1998.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “New insights into the molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae” at the Seventh Symposium on International Medical Cooperation “Enteric Infectious Diseases” held at the International Medical Center of Japan at Tokyo on December 3, 1998

·          Invited participant of the WHO meeting on New Frontiers in the development of vaccines against enterotoxinogenic (ETEC) and Enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) E. coli infections held at the Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan on December 4 and 5, 1998.

·          Delivered the 5^th Professor A.K. Chandra Memorial Lecture entitled “Molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae: Masquerade of a guile pathogen” on 15^th December, 1998 at the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Calcutta.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “The environmental enigma of epidemic Vibrio cholerae: virulent strains versus virulence genes” on 16^th December, 1998 at the Symposium on Recent -Developments in Molecular and Cell biology on 15^th and 16^th December, 1998 at the Magnad Saha Auditorium, University College of Science and Technology, Calcutta.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Enteric Infectious Diarrhoea: the need for a prevention strategy” at the Scientific Session: Health Prospectives of 21^st Century held during the 66^th Foundation Day of All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health on December 30, 1998 in Calcutta.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Genotypes of Helicobacter pylori and their relationship with virulence” on January 22, 1999 during the National Workshop on Helicobacter/Campylobacter held at the Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical between January 19 and 23, 1999.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae” on February 5, 1999 during the National Symposium on New Biosciences in Animal Resources Development and Sixth Annual Convention of Indian Society for Veterinary Immunology and Biotechnology held at Calcutta between February 4 and 6, 1999.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Emerging clones of Vibrio cholerae and multi drug resistance” on March 1, 1999 during the Indo-French Symposium on Multiple Drug Resistance and Emerging Diseases, organized by the Indian National Science Academy and Institute de France, Academie des Sciences at New Delhi between February 28 and March 4, 1999.

·          Delivered an oration entitled "Molecular epidemiology of cholera" on March 28, 1999 during the 3rd State Conference, Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, West Bengal Chapter at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae: masquerade of a deceptive pathogen” on November 16, 2001 during the International Seminar titled Changing people-Environment interactions in contemporary Asia: An areas study approach conducted by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto, Japan from November 15 to 17, 2001.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Cholera: Current knowledge in the genetic changes in Vibrio cholerae” on March 21, 2002 during the Third Sir Dorabji Tata Symposium on Diarrhoeal Diseases conducted by the Sir Dorabji Tata Centre for Research in Tropical Diseases in Bangalore, India from March 21 to 22, 2002.

·          Participated and delivered an oral presentation in the Xth International Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology conducted by the International Union of Microbiological Societies World Congresses held in Paris from 27^th July to 1^st August 2002.

·          Delivered the Foundation Day Lecture entitled “Microbial Arms Race – Emerging Enteric Infections” at the National Institute of Immunology, Delhi on October 6^th, 2003.

·          Delivered an invited lecture entitled “Emerging and reemerging enteric pathogens and drug resistance” on November 6, 2003 at the 11^th Asian Congress of Pediatrics held in Bangkok from November 2 to 7, 2003. 

·          Delivered the Pasteur memorial Oration entitled “Evolution and Emergence of Vibrio cholerae O139” at Bose Institute, Kolkata, India on December 19, 2003.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “The new cholera pandemic: the O139 case study” at the Indian Science Congress held on January 3-7, 2004 at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.

·          Delivered invited talks entitled “Emerging and reemerging Enteric Infections” on January 6, 2004 and a plenary lecture on “Helicobacter pylori” on January 9, 2004 at the “Indo-US Symposium on Infectious Disease Research and Development held at Bangalore, India between January 6-10, 2004.

·          Delivered the Foundation Day Lecture entitled “Molecular genetics of Helicobacter pylori : An Indian perspective” at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Delhi on January 28th, 2004.

·          Temporary adviser in the “Joint FAO/WHO workshop on Enterobacter sakazakii and other microorganisms in powdered infant formula” held in Geneva, Switzerland from February 2 to 5, 2004.

·          Delivered a lecture on “The current epidemiological concern and laboratory networking development in the PulseNet Asia Pacific Workshop meeting in Hong Kong from March 18-19, 2004. Also acted as the Chairman of the Session on surveillance of Foodborne infection.

·          Temporary adviser to WHO in the meeting on Future needs and directions of Shigella vaccines held between 13 and 15 September, 2004. Delivered a talk entitled “Molecular epidemiology and serotype diversity of Shigella strains.”

·          Participated in the World Water Forum held at Marrakech in Morocco on 22 September 2004 as a UNESCO invitee and delivered a talk entitled “Global disease burden as a result of water borne pathogens: where do we stand?

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “The Matlab variants of Vibrio cholerae O1: do they deserve a new biotype status?” at the 39^th Joint Conference on Cholera and other bacterial enteric infections panel meeting sponsored by the 40^th Anniversary of the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program in Kyoto, Japan on 8^th December, 2004.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Microbial agents in diarrhoeal disease – perspective in developing country” at the Indian Society of Gastroenterology, West Bengal Chapter held in Calcutta between March 5 and 6, 2005.

·          Delivered an invited talk entitled “Emerging and Reemerging Enteric Diseases” at the Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional, Lima, Peru on May 5, 2005.

·          Delivered a Keynote address entitled “Diarrhoeal diseases - Three decades in perspective” at the Diarrhoeal Diseases session at the IV^th International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria held in Marseille, France from 11 to 15 September, 2005.

·          Delivered an invited lecture entitled “Recent Advances in Cholera Research” at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands on November 4, 2005.

·          Delivered the Platinum Jubilee Lecture entitled “The restless genome of Vibrio cholerae: snapshot of genetic changes in the past 25 years and their impact” at the Medical Sciences Sectional Programme of the 93^rd Indian Science Congress held in Hyderabad, India from 3 to 7 January, 2006.

·          Served as a Member of the Expert Panel on Secretory Diarrheal Diseases in Developing Countries convened by the Institute of OneWorld Health in ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 9, 2006.

·          Invited by FAO/WHO/AIFST/FSA for the pre-conference workshop on Microbiological Risk Assessment and for the 2^nd International Conference on Microbial Risk Assessment: Foodborne hazards held in Sydney, Australia from 20 to 23 February, 2005.

·          Delivered the Presidential Address entitled “Cholera vaccines – a tale of contradictions” at the Third Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology held in Hyderabad, India from 6 to 8 March, 2006.

·          Delivered Plenary Lecture entitled “Hybrid biotypes of Vibrio cholerae” at the 11^th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Diseases and Nutrition held at Bangkok, Thailand from 8 to 10 March, 2006.

·          Participated in the Fourth Meeting of the PulseNet Asia Pacific held at Nanjing, China from December 19 to 21, 2006 and delivered a talk entitled “New and evolving variants of the El Tor biotype of Vibrio cholerae O1 in Bangladesh.”

·          Delivered invited lecture entitled “Molecular basis of the emergence of a new more severe form of cholera” at the Department of Veterinary Science of the Osaka Prefecture University on February 20, 2007.

·          Delivered invited lecture entitled “Molecular basis of the emergence of a new more severe form of cholera” at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University on February 22, 2007.

·          Delivered invited lecture entitled “Molecular basis of the emergence of a new more severe form of cholera” at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology on March 8, 2007.

5.             Faculty

·          Supervisor, Guide and Examiner for Ph.D. students, University of Calcutta, INDIA.

·          Co-Advisor and Ph.D. Examiner for the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand

·          Co-supervisor for Ph.D. students, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

·          Course coordinator of the Course Module “Laboratory Aspects of Public Health” for MPH students of the James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh

6.                   Editorial Board/Advisory Board of Scientific Journals

·          Editorial Board of the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (1998-2004)

·          Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology

·          Indian Journal of Experimental Biology

·          Indian Journal of Medical Research

·          Journal of Clinical Microbiology (American Society for Microbiology)

·          Epidemiology and Infection

·          Microbes and Environments (The Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology).

·          Tropical Medicine and Health (Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine)

·          Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (2005 onwards)

·          Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (2005 onwards)

7.             Affiliations

·                      Elected on Sept. 8, 1986 as member of the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology (ICSB), Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Vibrionaceae.

·                      Elected as Secretary of the above Committee at the meeting in Jerusalem, Israel on August 17, 1996.

·                      Member of the International Association on Water Pollution Research and Control (Specialist Group on Health-Related Water Microbiology).

·                      Course Facilitator in the WHO Intercountry Courses on Laboratory Aspects of Diarrhoeal Diseases from 1982 onwards.

·                      Elected to the position of Member-at-Large to the Executive Board of the International Union of Microbiological Society at the Executive Board Meeting held on July 7, 1994 at Prague, Czech Republic.

·                      Elected as the Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) in 1995.

·                      Elected as Member of Guha Research Council (GRC) in 1997.

·                      Invited as Expert by the European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe for preparation of the Microbiology Review document for Vibrio cholerae.

·                      Member of the CSIR Expert Committee for selection of SRF/RA in the subject of Medical Science held on 15 & 16 Feb. 1999 held at CSIR Complex, Pusa, New Delhi.

·                      Expert in Medical Biotechnology for the selection of Post-doctoral Fellows under the Post Doctoral Training Programme of the Bose Institute on March 27, 1999.

·                      Elected as Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, USA on April 30^th, 2002.

·                      Elected as the Fellow of the Indian National Academy (FNA) on October 7, 2002.

·                      Elected into the Fellowship of the Third World Academy of Sciences (renamed as The Academy of Sciences for the Developing Nations) at the 15th General Meeting of TWAS, held in Trieste, Italy, on 23 November 2004.

Awards

·                      Awarded Certificate of Merit in recognition and appreciation for outstanding contribution to Public Health Education for Vibrio cholerae and Cholera, March, 1994 from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA.

·                      Awarded the Professor S.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Award on January 5, 1998 from the Physiological Society of India and deliver the Memorial Oration at the Indian Science Congress at Hyderabad.

·                      Awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for excellence in Medical Sciences for the year 1998.

·                      Awarded Gold Medal on March 28, 1999 during the 3rd State Conference, Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, West Bengal Chapter at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta.

Organized Conferences

·        Advanced Laboratory Training Course in Infectious Disease Research, ICDDR,B, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Dhaka, Bangladesh  (8–23, September 2003).

·          Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Diseases and Nutrition, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh (7–9 December, 2003)

·          Workshop on Shigellosis, sponsored by WHO and hosted by ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh (16–18, February, 2004).

·          International Advisory Board of the 14^th International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and related Organisms (CHRO 2007), September 2^nd to 5^th, 2007.

·          Designed and convened along with Dr. Rita R. Colwell a special Interest symposium entitled “Vibrio parahaemolyticus : New and disturbing events” at the 107^th Annual meeting of the American Society of Microbiology held in Toronto from May 21 to 25, 2007

Patents filed abroad

Thungapathra, M.; Ghosh, A.; Sharma, C.; Gupta, N.; Ghosh, R.K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Kole, H. and Nair, G.B.

PROCESS FOR THE ISOLATION OF A NONTOXINOGENIC VIBRO CHOLERAE STRAIN AND A PROCESS FOR PREPARING CHOLERA VACCINE FROM SAID VIBRIO CHOLERAE STRAIN (US Patent no. 6106843 dated 22/08/2000)

 

Thungapathra, M.; Ghosh, A.; Sharma, C.; Gupta, N.; Ghosh, R.K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Kole, H. and Nair, G.B.

PROCESS FOR THE ISOLATION OF A NONTOXINOGENIC VIBRO CHOLERAE STRAIN AND A PROCESS FOR PREPARING CHOLERA VACCINE FROM SAID VIBRIO CHOLERAE STRAIN (Patent pending in Japan)

 

Thungapathra, M.; Ghosh, A.; Sharma, C.; Gupta, N.; Ghosh, R.K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Kole, H. and Nair, G.B.

PROCESS FOR THE ISOLATION OF A NONTOXINOGENIC VIBRO CHOLERAE STRAIN AND A PROCESS FOR PREPARING CHOLERA VACCINE FROM SAID VIBRIO CHOLERAE STRAIN (Patent pending in EP)

 

Patents filed in India

 

Thungapathra, M.; Ghosh, A.; Sharma, C.; Gupta, N.; Ghosh, R.K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Kole, H. and Nair, G.B.

A PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CHOLERA VACCINE (Patent application no. 2740DEL1996)

Thungapathra, M.; Ghosh, A.; Sharma, C.; Gupta, N.; Ghosh, R.K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Kole, H. and Nair, G.B.

A PROCESS FOR THE ISOLATION OF A NONTOXINOGENIC V CHOLERAE STRAIN (Patent application no. 2734DEL1996)

 

 

8.             Students who have received their Ph.D. Degrees under my supervision with year of Award and title of the thesis