| Chandrima Shaha | |
| Birth Place: | Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Fields: | Biology |
| Education: |
University of Kansas Medical Centre (1980–1982) Population Council, New York City (1983–1984) |
| Alma Mater: | University of Calcutta |
| Thesis Title: | Antifertility and related studies on the extractives of aristolochia indica LINN |
| Thesis Url: | http://hdl.handle.net/10603/159745 |
| Thesis Year: | 1979 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Dr A Pakrashi |
| Known For: | Mechanisms of cellular defense from oxidative stress and modalities of cell death in a multicellular model of mammalian germ cells and a unicellular model of a protozoan parasite. |
| Website: | website |
| Parents: | Karuna Shaha (mother) |
Chandrima Shaha (born 14 October 1952)[1] is an Indian biologist.[2], she is the J. C. Bose Chair Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata.[3] She is the former Director and former Professor of Eminence at the National Institute of Immunology.[4] She was the President of Indian National Science Academy (2020–22)[5] and the Vice President (International Affairs) of the same academy (2016–2018).[6] She is an elected fellow of the World Academy of Sciences,[7] Indian National Science Academy,[8] Indian Academy of Sciences,[9] National Academy of Sciences[10] and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology.
Shaha graduated from the University of Calcutta and completed her doctoral research in 1980 from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta. For her post doctoral work, she was at the University of Kansas Medical Centre from 1980 to 1982 and then from 1983 to 1984 at the Population Council, New York City.
Shaha has served as Council Member for the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (2016–2017), Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2013–2015)[1] and also as Council member of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (2015–18). She was a member of the editorial board of ‘Scientific Reports’ of Nature Publishing Group, London:‘Spermatogenesis’, Landes Bioscience, Texas and editorial board member of ‘Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology’ of Elsevier, PA, Austin. During her career, she was a member of the Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility of the World Health Organization, Geneva (1990–1992), Switzerland and International Consortium on Male Contraception, New York (1993–1997). She was the Chair of the DBT Task Force on Biotechnology Based Programme for Women (2012–2014), member of Task Force on Human Genetics and Genome Analysis, Task Force on Basic Research in Modern Biology (2015–2017), Department of Biotechnology. She was Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Indian Council of Medical Research (2013–2016). She is currently the Governing Council member of IIT Gandhinagar[11] and a member of 2018 [12] leadership conclave. She is currently serving as the Member of the Governing Council- ICMR: Executive Council – University of Hyderabad: Governing Council – InStem, Bangalore: Scientific Advisory Group – ICMR: Scientific Advisory Committee – National Institute of Animal Biotechnology: Scientific Advisory Committee – Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Trivandrum. She served on the Scientific Advisory Committee, Life Science Research Board, DRDO (2012–2016).
Shaha's research programme is geared towards the understanding of cell death pathways and cellular defense processes in unicellular and multicellular organisms that have important bearing on designing of therapies for various diseases. Kala-azar, a neglected tropical disease remains a huge problem being endemic in certain parts of the country and is caused by the Leishmania parasite. Understanding of how parasite death occurs is important as successful killing of the parasite would reduce disease burden. The research demonstrated the ability of the Leishmania parasite to execute death phenotypes similar to metazoans and experimental evidence demonstrated the involvement of the single mitochondrion in apoptosis like death in one of the earliest eukaryotes. Host-parasite interaction studies show the involvement of Bcl-2 proteins in parasite survival. Other studies with cells having high division index like cancer cells and mammalian germ cells provides insight into the various pathways that are triggered by stress and their functional relevance in cell survival.