Manas Sarkar

Biography

Dr. Manas Sarkar received the prestigious DRDO-Fellowship in 2005 and joined Defence Research Laboratory (DRDO), Tezpur as Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in January 2005, and subsequently promoted to Senior Research Fellow (SRF) in February 2007. After completing his tenure as DRDO-SRF in January 2010, he joined in National Centre for Disease Control (Min. of Health & FW, Govt. of India) as Deputy Assistant Director (Scientist), where he is working until date. He has research experience in the fields of medical entomology, vector biology & control, and insect molecular genetics. His doctoral research was on biochemical and molecular mechanisms of insecticide resistance. During his appointment in Defence Research Laboratory (DRDO), Tezpur, he conducted vector surveillance, bio-toxicity assays of biological and chemical insecticides against mosquitoes; assess the insecticide susceptibility status in mosquito vectors of human diseases. He performed the biochemical analysis and detoxifying enzyme profiling of mosquito vectors to understand the mechanisms of metabolic resistance (Sarkar et al. 2009a). He studied the life-stage specific responses of resistance in mosquitoes (Sarkar et al, 2009c). A considerable portion of his research work relates to molecular biology of insecticide resistance and the understanding of the target site mediated resistance mechanism such as the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms like knockdown resistance (kdr) in developing resistance phenotype (Sarkar et al, 2009b). His research work also focused on the distribution pattern of kdr in wild mosquito populations in India (Sarkar et al, 2009b). In this course, he have developed a Real-Time PCR assay based on Melting Curve Analysis using single-labeled probe for high-throughput genotyping of kdr mutation. This is for the first time that Simple-probe chemistry is used in insect molecular biology (Sarkar et al., 2010a)

Research Interest

His main research interests are in Biotechnological approach to contain diseases, vectors and monitoring of eco-environment by Geographical Informatics System-Remote Sensing. Studies on the role of certain Anophelines in the transmission of malaria.