Arindam Maitra

Biography

1999 Ph.D All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi 1993 M.Sc University College of Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 1991 B.Sc Presidency College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 2012 - Till Date Associate Professor, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani Project Coordinator (NIBMG), International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) – India Project Authorized Signatory, Core Technologies Research Initiative (CoTeRI)

Research Interest

The “Genomics and Global Health Report 2004” has identified genomics as “the powerful new wave of health related life sciences” with tremendous potential to address unresolved health problems, especially in the developing countries. My research mission is to rise to this challenge by harnessing emerging genomics technologies to uncover important and novel information on human health and disease. The emergence of techniques like massively parallel DNA sequencing methods (MPS) has revolutionized our ability to identify causal genomic variants in various human health conditions. Exome and whole genome sequencing based approaches have already been shown to be successful in uncovering the genetic basis of multiple diseases. My aim is to harness emerging technologies like MPS to identify genetic basis of causality of diseases with special emphasis on maternal and infant health (preterm birth) and head and neck cancer. The ultimate purpose of undertaking such work is to discover important genetic information which can be translated into identification of actionable targets to reduce the public health burden. I believe in emanation of scientific knowledge for capacity building in research, in building partnership with the industry and in engaging with the community at large. Hence, my activities and future plans are geared towards realization of these goals. I actively participate in the teaching activities and workshops that are hosted for students and clinicians. I also participate in various programs with the industry and in the community programs undertaken by the institute to engage with the general population on biomedical genomics.