- Raj Shankar
Infobox Person
name = Raj Shankar
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image_size = 100 px
caption = Raj Shankar
birth_date =2nd April 1947
birth_place =Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh , India
death_date =22nd August 2000
death_place =Varanasi , India
death_cause =Massive Cardiac Arrest
nationality =India n
known_for = his discovery that the cognitive defects inAlzheimer's disease are caused by a phosphorylation-related problem with protein folding.
education = Phd , University Of British Columbia ( UBC ), Vancouver B.C , Canada
title = Professor of Biochemistry , Banaras Hindu University , Varanasi India ( Gave 29 years of dedicated service to BHU )
website = [http://www.raj.timespiders.co.in]Raj Shankar (
2 April 1947 ,Gorakhpur ,India -22 August 2000 ), was an Indianbiochemist . cite web
last = Shankar
first = Raj
title = Professor Raj Shankar's Homepage
url = http://www.timespiders.co.in/raj
accessdate = 2007-07-06] His main fields of specialization were neurobiochemistry and clinical biochemistry. His contributions onneurochemistry are well recognized and he had been invited to deliver lectures in various prestigious conferences.Shankar studied developmental neurobiology with special emphasis on
malnutrition during the brain growth spurt. His work clearly established that undernutrition during brain development causes some irreversible changes. In 1991, work carried out in Texas andYale withMagnetic Resonance Imaging by other workers confirmed some of the conclusions of Shankar's work. Work done during last few years of his life on developing brain show thatsignal transduction mechanisms are affected due to nutritional stress during brain development.He also studied biochemical aspects of mode of action of drugs on the
central nervous system . Apart from work onreserpine done earlier and published in "Nature" and "Biochemical Pharmacology", in 1987 he established that thebarbiturate pentobarbitone affects proteinphosphorylation in the brain. This work is important for the mode of action of drugs likehaloperidol andtrifluoperazine . Shankar's work in clinical biochemistry was mainly concerned withlipoprotein metabolism . At the time of his death, he had over 80 publications in international and national academic journals.Early career
In 1964 he obtained his B.Sc. degree with major courses in
Botany ,Zoology , andChemistry from Deen Dayal UpadhyayGorakhpur University . In 1966 he received his M.Sc. degree inBiochemistry from theLucknow University . Shankar began his career studying lipid metabolism in mycobacteria at theUniversity of Delhi . He then traveled to theUniversity of British Columbia (UBC) to study for his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry under ProfessorJudah Hirsch Quastel ,a British-Canadian biochemist who pioneered diverse research inneurochemistry , soil metabolism, cellular metabolism, andcancer . At UBC, Shankar studied cerebral metabolism duringanoxia . This work showed thattetrodotoxin stimulatesanaerobic glycolysis and these findings led to the conclusion that at the onset of anoxia,and in the absence of tetrodotoxinaction potentials are generated.Upon graduation, he returned to India and joined the faculty of
Banaras Hindu University ( Department of Biochemistry ,IMS-BHU ), inVaranasi , India. Here he began his work on malnutrition and brain development. His work with malnourished rats demonstrated that Na+K+ ATPase (an essential neuronal enzyme) show decreased activity during malnutrition.He also chaired as the Head Of the Department Of Biochemistry atIMS-BHU .Contributions to the field
He and his team later found that
reserpine is a strong inhibitor of lipidperoxidation and proteinphosphorylation in the brain. Shankar's work established that reserpine affects thecation ic content of the rat brain and proposed that this may be related to release ofmonoamines at thesynapse .In the early 1980s, Shankar demonstrated that there is a relationship between
high density lipoprotein and prematureatherosclerosis in patients withrenal failure published in The LANCET.Legacy
One of Shankar's most lasting contributions is his discovery that the cognitive defects in
Alzheimer's disease are caused by a phosphorylation-related problem with protein folding. This influenced Alzheimer's research for years to come.In his last work he showed that sites in proteins damaged due to free radicals can be accurately determined by carbonylation studies and could have been developed as an accurate method to denote relation between chronological age and biological age after free radical induced damage.
Paying tribute to him, the Professor Raj Shankar Memorial Gold Medal is given to a top student in Biological Sciences every year at Deen Dayal Upadhyay
Gorakhpur University (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.)Awards and Fellowships
*1960-62 Awarded Merit Scholarship under 2nd year plan in India.
*1964-66 Awarded Atomic Energy Scholarship by the Atomic Energy Commission (INDIA).
*1966-67 Awarded CSIR Junior Research Fellowship at V.P Chest Institute,University of Delhi.
*1967-71 Awarded various scholorships including prestigious UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP at the University of British Columbia,Vancouver B.C,Canada.
*Elected member of International Brain Research Organization in 1979.
*In 1999 elected as Executive member of Neuroscience Society of India.
* Elected Lifetime Member of Association of Clinical Biochemists Of India.References
ee also
*
List of neuroscientists
*List of biochemists
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