Shankar Balasubramanian

Shankar Balasubramanian

Shankar Balasubramanian, Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
Born September 30, 1966[1]
Chennai, India
Residence UK
Institutions
Alma mater Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (BA)
Doctoral advisor Chris Abell
Known for
Notable awards
Website
www.ch.cam.ac.uk/group/shankar

Shankar Balsubramanian is an Indian-born British chemist.[3][4] He is the Herchel Smith Professor [5] of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge,[6][7] Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute [8] and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.[9] He is recognised for his contributions in the field of nucleic acids.[10] He is scientific founder of Solexa [11][12] and Cambridge Epigenetix.[13]

Education

Born in Madras (now Chennai) India in 1966, Shankar Balasubramanian moved to the UK with his parents in 1967. He grew up in a rural area just outside Runcorn in Cheshire and attended Daresbury Primary School, then Appleton Hall High School (which has since amalgamated to form Bridgewater High School). He then went on to study at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he did his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (1985–88) and continued with a PhD[14] for research on the Reaction mechanism of the enzyme Chorismate synthase supervised by Chris Abell (1988-1991).[15]

Career

Following his PhD, Balasubramanian travelled to the USA as a SERC/NATO Research Fellow and worked in the group of Professor Steven J Benkovic at Pennsylvania State University (1991-1993). He started his independent academic career in 1994 in the University of Cambridge and has remained there ever since, first as College Lecturer, then University Lecturer (1998), University Reader in Chemical Biology (2003) and Professor of Chemical Biology (2007). He was most recently appointed Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2008.[16] He currently directs research laboratories in the Department of Chemistry[17][18] and also the CRUK Cambridge Institute at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.[19]

Research

Balasubramanian works in the field of nucleic acids.

“ Shankar Balasubramanian is an internationally recognised leader in the field of nucleic acids who is distinguished for pioneering contributions to chemistry and its application to the biological and medical sciences. He is a principal inventor of the leading next generation sequencing methodology, Solexa sequencing, that has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality and has revolutionised biology. He has made seminal contributions to the identification, elucidation and manipulation of non-coding genetic elements, particularly four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes. His work on the intervention of nucleic acid function using small molecules has revealed a number of molecular mechanisms that can be exploited, e.g. to modulate the biology of cancer.[20] ”

More recently Balasubramanian has been inventing and applying new chemical methods to study epigenetic changes to DNA bases including single base resolution sequencing of 5-formylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-methylcytosine.[21][22][23]

Honours and Awards

1998 Glaxo Wellcome Award for Innovative Organic Chemistry

2002 Corday–Morgan Medal and Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry [24]

2009 Royal Society Mullard Award [25]

2010 BBSRC Innovator of the Year [26]

2010 BBSRC Commercial Innovator of the Year [27]

2011 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci)[28]

2012 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) [29]

2012 Elected member of EMBO [2]

2013 Tetrahedron Prize [30]

2014 Biochemical Society Heatley Medal and Prize [31]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "BALASUBRAMANIAN, Prof. Shankar". Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press.(subscription required)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 EMBO, 2013. EMBO welcomes 55 leading life scientists as members[online] Available at: <http://www.embo.org/news/press-releases/press-releases-2012/embo-welcomes-55-leading-life-scientists-as-members> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  3. ↑ Balasubramanian, S (2007). "From DNA to mountain climbing. Shankar Balasubramanian talks to Alison Stoddart about his research and other interests". Molecular bioSystems 3 (5): B37. PMID 17582897.
  4. ↑ Balasubramanian, S (2013). "An interview with Shankar Balasubramanian". Trends in Biochemical Sciences 38 (4): 170–1. doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2013.02.006. PMID 23522090.
  5. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2011. Herchel Smith Academics .[online] Available at: <http://www.herchelsmith.cam.ac.uk/community/academics/> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  6. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2013. The Balasubramanian Group.[online] Available at: <http://www-shankar.ch.cam.ac.uk/> [Accessed 4 April 2013].
  7. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2013. Professor Shankar Balasubramanian FMedSci FRS.[online] Available at: <http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/person/sb10031> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  8. ↑ Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, 2012. Balasubramanian Group.[online] Available at: <http://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/research-groups/balasubramanian-group> [Accessed 4 April 2013].
  9. ↑ Trinity College, Cambridge, 2013. The Fellowship.[online] Available at: <http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=321> [Accessed 4 April 2013].
  10. ↑ Shankar Balasubramanian's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
  11. ↑ Illumina, 2013. SBS Technology.[online] Available at: <http://technology.illumina.com/technology/next-generation-sequencing/solexa-technology.html> [Accessed 8 April 2013]
  12. ↑ Bentley, D. R.; Balasubramanian, S.; Swerdlow, H. P.; Smith, G. P.; Milton, J.; Brown, C. G.; Hall, K. P.; Evers, D. J.; Barnes, C. L.; Bignell, H. R.; Boutell, J. M.; Bryant, J.; Carter, R. J.; Keira Cheetham, R.; Cox, A. J.; Ellis, D. J.; Flatbush, M. R.; Gormley, N. A.; Humphray, S. J.; Irving, L. J.; Karbelashvili, M. S.; Kirk, S. M.; Li, H.; Liu, X.; Maisinger, K. S.; Murray, L. J.; Obradovic, B.; Ost, T.; Parkinson, M. L.; Pratt, M. R. (2008). "Accurate whole human genome sequencing using reversible terminator chemistry". Nature 456 (7218): 53–59. doi:10.1038/nature07517. PMC 2581791. PMID 18987734.
  13. ↑ Cambridge Epigenetix, 2013. CEGX [online] Available at: <http://www.cambridge-epigenetix.com/en_GB/about-us> [Accessed 19 July 2013].
  14. ↑ Balasubramanian, Shankar (1991). Studies on the reaction mechanism of chorismate synthase (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  15. ↑ "Fitz alumni on top science list". Fitzwilliam College. 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  16. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2013. Professor Shankar Balasubramanian The Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry.[online] Available at: <http://www-shankar.ch.cam.ac.uk/shankar> [Accessed 4 April 2013].
  17. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2013. The Balasubramanian Group.[online] Available at: <http://www-shankar.ch.cam.ac.uk/> [Accessed 4 April 2013].
  18. ↑ University of Cambridge, 2013. Professor Shankar Balasubramanian FMedSci FRS.[online] Available at: <http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/person/sb10031> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  19. ↑ Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, 2013. Balasubramanian Group.[online] Available at: <http://www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/research-groups/balasubramanian-group> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ Booth, M. J.; Branco, M. R.; Ficz, G.; Oxley, D.; Krueger, F.; Reik, W.; Balasubramanian, S. (2012). "Quantitative Sequencing of 5-Methylcytosine and 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine at Single-Base Resolution". Science 336 (6083): 934. doi:10.1126/science.1220671.
  22. ↑ Raiber, E. A.; Beraldi, D; Ficz, G; Burgess, H. E.; Branco, M. R.; Murat, P; Oxley, D; Booth, M. J.; Reik, W; Balasubramanian, S (2012). "Genome-wide distribution of 5-formylcytosine in embryonic stem cells is associated with transcription and depends on thymine DNA glycosylase". Genome Biology 13 (8): R69. doi:10.1186/gb-2012-13-8-r69. PMC 3491369. PMID 22902005.
  23. ↑ Booth, M. J.; Marsico, G.; Bachman, M.; Beraldi, D.; Balasubramanian, S. (2014). "Quantitative sequencing of 5-formylcytosine in DNA at single-base resolution". Nature Chemistry 6 (5): 435–40. doi:10.1038/nchem.1893. PMID 24755596.
  24. ↑ Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013. Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize Winners[online] Available at: <http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/CordayMorganPrizes/PreviousWinners.asp> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  25. ↑ The Royal Society. Royal Society Mullard Award.[online] Available at: <http://royalsociety.org/awards/mullard-award/> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  26. ↑ BBSRC, 2013. DNA sequencing pioneer named BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2010[online] Available at: <http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2010/100319-pr-dna-sequencing-pioneer-innovator.aspx> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  27. ↑ BBSRC, 2013. DNA sequencing pioneer named BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2010[online] Available at: <http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2010/100319-pr-dna-sequencing-pioneer-innovator.aspx> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  28. ↑ The Academy of Medical Sciences. Directory of Fellows.[online] Available at: <http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/p59.html> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  29. ↑ The Royal Society. Fellows.[online] Available at: <http://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/> [Accessed 8 April 2013].
  30. ↑ Elsevier Tetrahedron prize winners: <http://www.elsevier.com/physical-sciences/chemistry/organic-chemistry/tetrahedron-prize-for-creativity-in-organic-chemistry-or-bioorganic-medicinal-chemistry>
  31. ↑ Biochemical Society, 2009-12.2014 Biochemical Society award winners announced[online] Available at: <http://www.biochemistry.org/Awards/2014Winners.aspx> [Accessed 10 April 2013].