Snehasikta Swarnakar (born 1963) is an Indian chemical biologist and the senior principal scientist at the Division of Cancer Biology and Inflammatory Disorder of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. Known for her studies in the field of gastric, ovarian, head and neck cancers, Swarnakar is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded her the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions to biosciences in 2007.
Swarnakar's research is focused on cancer biology and she is known to have conducted basic and translational research on various types of cancers such as lung, brain, oral, breast, pancreatic, blood and cervical cancers.[6]
She led a team of scientists who worked on the therapeutic properties of turmeric and they identified that the controlled dosage of curcumin, an ingredient of turmeric which gave the rhizome its yellow color, acted as a therapeutic agent for gastricinflammation and ulceration.[7] They demonstrated that curcumin increased MMP2 enzyme level while deceasing the MMP9 enzyme, thus ensured balance of the two enzymes which acted in opposite ways in the formation of new blood vessels. They also proposed a treatment protocol for gastric ulcers with the use of nanocapsules and antioxidants where quercetin, an antioxidant present in apples, tomatoes and onions is administered through nanocapsules to treat ethanol-induced gastric ulcers.[8][note 1] Her studies have been documented by way of a number of articles[note 2] and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 103 of them.[9] Besides, she has contributed chapters to books edited by others.[10][11] She has also delivered invited or plenary speeches at science conferences[12][13] and has mentored several scholars in their post-graduate and doctoral studies.[14]
Swarnakar is member of the governing body of the ANB Memorial Foundation, a trust in memory of Amar Nath Bhaduri, the noted chemical biologist[15] she was the secretary of the organizing committee of the 2nd International Meet on Advanced Studies on Cell Signaling Network (CeSiN 2014) held in Kolkata.[16] She is the treasurer of the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology[17] and sits in the council of the Chemical Biology Society.[18] She is also a life member of the Indian Science Congress Association, the Biotech Research Society, India, the Society for Free Radical Research, the International Society for Computational Biology and the Society of Biological Chemists, India.[3]
Satya Prakash Gupta (Ed.); Snehasikta Swarnakar, Amartya Mishra, Susri Ray Chaudhuri (Eds) (7 April 2012). "The Gelatinases and Their Inhibitors: The Structure–Activity Relationships". Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors: Specificity of Binding and Structure-Activity Relationships. Experientia Supplementum. Vol. 103. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 57–82. doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-0364-9_3. ISBN978-3-0348-0363-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Ganguly, Krishnendu; Maity, Pallab; Reiter, Russel J; Swarnakar, Snehasikta (1 October 2005). "Effect of melatonin on secreted and induced matrix metalloproteinase-9 and -2 activity during prevention of indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer". Journal of Pineal Research. 39 (3): 307–315. doi:10.1111/j.1600-079x.2005.00250.x. ISSN1600-079X. PMID16150113. S2CID22748433.
Armstrong, P.B.; Melchior, R.; Swarnakar, S.; Quigley, J.P. (1998). "α2-Macroglobulin does not function as a C3 homologue in the plasma hemolytic system of the American horseshoe crab, Limulus". Molecular Immunology. 35 (1): 47–53. doi:10.1016/s0161-5890(98)80016-3. PMID9683263.
^Satya Prakash Gupta (Ed.); Snehasikta Swarnakar, Amartya Mishra, Susri Ray Chaudhuri (Eds) (7 April 2012). "The Gelatinases and Their Inhibitors: The Structure–Activity Relationships". Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors: Specificity of Binding and Structure-Activity Relationships. Experientia Supplementum. Vol. 103. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 57–82. doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-0364-9_3. ISBN978-3-0348-0363-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"NASI Year Book 2015"(PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 17 December 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
