Dr. Anuradha Lohia, Professor, Department of Bio-chemistry Bose Institute: through her current researches she has made seminal contributions towards understanding the cell cycle of Entamoeba histolytica where standard microbiological / genetic methods cannot be used and she has demonstrated significant differences in the cell cycle of E. histolytica, such as, the lack of checkpoints so that the amoeba genome re-duplicates in the absense of mitosis. She was the 1st to clone Entamoeba cell cycle genes and to demonstrate the presence of intrones in amoeba. Using bioinformatic analysis of the E. histolytica genome, she has identified and annotated homologs required for checkpoint function in the eukaryotic cell cycle. Her group has also established a siRNA based method to down-regulate expression of specific genes in stable transformants and are using this to identify gene function in E. histolytica. In yet another approach to understand the epigenetic regulation of gene expression, they have identified S/MAR sequences from the amoeba genome and are investigating the role of methylation in these sequences to gene expression. She is also screening extracts from medicinal plants known to have anti-amoebic and anti-poliferative activity to identify their active principles and possible targets in E. histolytica. Her academic qualifications are many. She did a B.Sc in Physiology, Physics, Chemistry from Presidency College in 1975 resulting a Silver Medalist, an M.Sc in Physiology from the University of Calcutta in 1977 resulting Gold Medalist and a Ph.D in Biochemistry from IICB, University of Calcutta in 1986. She made several overseas visits mainly in the USA but also in Germany and Singapore from 1986 till 2000.
She has been writing many articles in indexed journals since 1984. She won several awards such as the Rockfeller Foundation Biotechnology Career Fellowship 1992-94 and she has been receivinig various research grants since 1990 such as the one time grant from Molecular and cellular biology network of UNESCO.
