Dr. Koustav Sarkar has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute/Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Currently, he is the Research Assistant Professor in department of Biotechnology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India. He presented papers in more than 50 national and international conferences. Dr. Sarkar has been involved in research over the last twenty years (including a Ph.D. and three Post-Docs) and made several important contributions to the development of advanced science and technology. He was involved in understanding the molecular mechanisms of the development of human immune responses in health & disease. Dr. Sarkar has already published 46 high-impact scientific publications in internationally reputed journals. He was also co-author of four book chapters. During PhD, Dr. Sarkar has developed a process for isolating glycoprotein(s) from neem leaf, which has immunomodulatory and cancer preventive functions. One patent (Patent Number: 259434; Grant Date: 12-Mar-2014) has been granted for this invention. He found out that the neem leaf glycoprotein helped to generate carcinoembryonic antigen specific anti-tumor immune responses utilizing macrophage & dendritic cell mediated antigen presentation to T and B cells and the induction of type 1 protective immunity. To study the intricate molecular mechanisms involved in the type 1 protective immunity, Dr. Sarkar moved to USA. Research from his US laboratory was essential in revealing for the first time a novel nuclear function for a well-known cytoskeleton structure associated protein, Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome Protein (WASp) in the transcriptional regulation of T helper cell 1 (Th1)-differentiation through its effect on epigenetic modifications at the T-BET gene-promoter locus. Since that time, Dr. Sarkar has been actively involved in further understanding how different types of epigenetic mechanisms are involved in T helper cell differentiation during breast cancer.

• Immunology

• Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy

• Epigenetics