Extremophilic Cyanobacteria For Novel Drug Development

Dr. Jnanendra Rath was awarded a Ph.D. in botany from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India, for his research on ecophysiological studies on the algae of Chilika Lake on the east coast of India. He served as an assistant professor in Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, and started his independent research on bioprospecting of cyanobacteria from extreme habitats. He established the Visva-Bharati Culture Collection of Algae (VBCCA) and is affiliated with the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC). His major research interest includes ecophysiology and survival strategies of cyanobacteria in extreme environment as well as obtaining bioactive secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria. He is an alumnus of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and a partner of the Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Dr. Rath is also a member of the Society of Wetland Scientists as well as several scientific bodies including the Psychological Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of Microbiologists of India, and the Indian Psychological Society. He is the recipient of the Raman Fellowship under the Indo-US 21st Century Knowledge Initiative and is currently a visiting scholar in the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, Oxford, Mississippi, USA. He has completed three externally funded research projects and has authored two books and twenty-four papers published in internationally recognized journals.

Dr. Sikha Mandal completed her M.Phil. in environmental science and was awarded a Ph.D. in botany from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, for her research on extremophilic cyanobacteria of eastern India. She worked as a senior research fellow and research associate in a project sponsored by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). Her major research interests include drug discovery and bioprospecting of extremophilic cyanobacteria. Dr. Mandal was awarded a Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) Young Scientist grant and a Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS) Women Scientists award. She is currently a member of SWS and the Psychological Society of America. She has published four papers in internationally reputed journal and is the author of three book chapters.