Biography

Dr Sovan Sarkar is a Birmingham Fellow (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the University of Birmingham, and holds the distinction of Former Fellow for life at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He studies the biological process of autophagy, which is an intracellular degradation pathway essential for cellular survival. Utilizing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and disease-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to establish human cellular platforms, his lab works on the regulation and therapeutic application of autophagy in relation to human physiology and diseases. He aims to develop a pipeline originating from basic biology to drug discovery, and potentially translate the findings for biomedical applications. He has made several contributions in the field of autophagy including the identification of mTOR-independent signalling pathways and small molecules modulating autophagy. These findings not only provided mechanistic insights into the cell biology of this process, but also generated potential therapeutic candidates for diverse human diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases where upregulating autophagy acts as a protective pathway. His work also involves the fundamental regulation of autophagy in physiologically-relevant hESCs, and its deregulation in disease-relevant cell-types differentiated from hiPSC models. He has co-authored more than 65 scientific publications, which have collectively received over 20000 citations (Google Scholar), and have generated 4 patents and various research features such as in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Chemical Biology, Molecular Cell and Times of India. He is also involved in scientific engagements with institutions in India as part of the University of Birmingham India Institute.

Previous Education

Madurai Kamaraj Univ, India MSc Biotechnology 2002
University of Calcutta BSc Physiology 2000

Links

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/cancer-genomic/sarkar-sovan.aspx
https://www.sovansarkarlab.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sovan-sarkar-b3218b25
http://www.mit.edu/~sarkar