Subhankar Chatterjee

Biography

Academic Qualification: Ph.D. in Science (2007) Awarded by Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India (Graduate work was carried out at Department of Microbiology, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India). Thesis Title: Microbial Fate of Estrogenic Phthalate Esters in the Environment: Biochemical and Molecular Analysis Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Tapan K. Dutta.;M.Sc. in Chemistry (1999) University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.Positions Held: ï‚· December, 2012 – till date - Assistant Prof., Dept. Of Environmental Sciences, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, HP, India. ï‚· May, 2012 – December, 2012 – Biomedical Post doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, , PA, USA. ï‚· March, 2011 – April, 2012 – DFG Post doctoral Research Scientist, Molecular Phytopathology and Mycotoxin Research, Georg-August University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany. ï‚· August, 2008 – September, 2010 - Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Georg-August University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany. ï‚· September, 2007 - July, 2008 – Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Biological Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, India. ï‚· July, 2002 - July, 2007 – Junior and Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Microbiology, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India. ï‚· June, 2000 to March, 2002 - CSIR Project Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Presidency College, Kolkata. ï‚· July, 2007 – September, 2007: Guest Lecturer in the department of Chemistry at Basanti Devi College, Kolkata. (UG degree course under Calcutta Univ.) ï‚· September, 1999 – July, 2002: Guest Lecturer in the department of Chemistry at Jogomaya Devi College, Kolkata. (UG degree course under Calcutta Univ.) ï‚· November, 1999 - June, 2000: Guest Lecturer in the department of Chemistry at Sri Chaitanya College, Habra, North-24 parganas. (UG degree course under Calcutta Univ.)

Research Interest

A) Environmental pollution by man-made chemicals (xenobiotic) is becoming major concern worldwide. With the growing human population and industrial activities over the last few decades, the quantity of xenobiotic compounds released into the environment has increased greatly. Further, indiscriminate and constant application of crop production and crop protection chemicals in agriculture especially in commercial crops grown in the Himalayas resulted in water pollution in Himalayan region too. Bioremediation is potentially an effective and sustainable technology for the reduction of soil, sediments, and ground water pollution caused by endocrine disrupting chemicals, pesticides etc. Our research on microbial biotechnology related to waste management involves developing new systems to clean up contaminated soil, sediment and water by biological means. We endeavour to increase the applicability of bioremediation by employing new knowledge on degradation processes, and on the potential and limitations of this technology. To achieve effective bioremediation, different strategies such as Biodegradation, Biotransformation, and Biosorption are being adapted. In near future extrapolation of this technology from laboratory scale experimentation to the field level will be taken into account after collaborating with the Engineering faculties. The goal is to use this technology not only for clean-up processes, but also for effectively reducing risk due to hazardous chemical pollution. B) Our second project on microbe-microbe (fungal-fungal, fungal-bacterial) interactions is running in collaboration with Prof. P Karlovsky’s lab at George-August University of Goettingen, Germany. Primary goal of this project is to identify microbial interaction specific metabolites, which carries important biological functions that may serve as biotechnology products in future as well as put impact in fungal ecology. Manipulation of the metabolic and detoxification pathways will be carried out using molecular biological tools in the coming years. Isolation and characterization of new fungal and bacterial strains from Himalayan region will be planned later on for metabolomics study. C) Our third project focusing on metabolic finger printing of psychrophilic bacteria isolated from Himalayan Glaciers and determination of the impact of these metabolites on Glacier environment.