1975 INSA Young Scientists Medal 1979 UGC Career Award in Sciences 1989 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 1998 UGC J. C. Bose Award 2002 INSA Sunder Lal Hora Medal 2007 BHU Professor CNR Rao Education Foundation Award
Subhash Chandra Lakhotia was born on 4 October 1945 in Churu, a city near Thar desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan, to Dwarka Prasad-Suryakala couple.[6] He did his early schooling in Churu and then in Kolkata.
He graduated from Vidyasagar College of the Calcutta University in Zoology Honours in 1964 before obtaining his master's degree in Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in 1966, both from the Calcutta University.[4] Continuing his doctoral studies at the same university at the Zoology Department, he secured his PhD in 1970. He did his post-doctoral studies at Delhi University during 1970–71 and started his career as a lecturer at Burdwan University in 1971. Moving to Gujarat University in June 1972, he stayed there until September 1976 before joining the Banaras Hindu University as a reader. He became a full professor in 1984 and continued there until superannuation in 2010. In between, he carried out some advanced studies at the Institute of Animal Genetics of the University of Edinburgh during 1972-73, at the University of California, Irvine during 1984-85 and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge in 1985. After his formal superannuation, he continued his academic activities at the Banaras Hindu University as Emeritus Professor, INSA senior scientist from January 2017 to January 2019 [4] and is now working as the life-long Distinguished Professor and SERB Distinguished Fellow.
Lakhotia's research is focused on cytogenetics, gene expression, cell and developmental biology.[7] He carried out pioneering research on Drosophila (fruit flies) with regards to its chromosome organization and replication, tissue-specific differences in expression of heat shock proteins, and discovery of Hsp60 in Drosophila. He has carried out life-time studies on the organization and functions of the 93D or the hsromega gene long-non-coding RNA locus of Drosophila melanogaster.[8] During his doctoral studies on dosage compensation in Drosophila he further confirmed the hyperactive male-X model and elucidated its cellular autonomy.[9] His discovery of active transcription in heterochromatin in Drosophila in early 1970s was one of the first documentations of transcriptional activity of heterochromatin. His later studies revealed the existence of two distinct replicon types in different cell types of Drosophila.
He has been a pioneer researcher studying the long non-coding RNAs since 1980s and has contributed significantly to a wider appreciation of their function through sustained studies on the hsromega gene.[8] His laboratory discovered the omega speckles[10] in Drosophila nuclei and established essential functions of the lncRNAs produced by the hsromega gene in organization of the intra-nuclear omega speckles. His studies also helped identify how this lncRNA gene modulates apoptosis and neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of human diseases.
Since 2008, he established Drosophila as a good model to understand the mechanisms of actions of some of the ayurvedic formulations.[11] His studies indicate that the Ayurvedic Amalaki Rasayana and Rasa-Sindoor can substantially suppress neurodegeneration associated with polyQ and Alzheimer's disorders.
He has published more than 200 original research papers, review articles, and chapters in books, available at PubMed, an online repository of medical articles,[12] and at ResearchGate.[13] He has also written more than 100 articles relating to policies on higher education, research publications, their assessment and ethics.
He has mentored more than 35 scholars in their doctoral studies.[4]
Lakhotia contributed to the establishment of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Banaras Hindu University and to the installation of the Confocal microscope facility at his department.[4]
He has delivered several award lectures, including the 18th G.J.S. Rao Memorial Award Lecture of the Indian Institute of Science in 2011, the Arya Bhatta Medal lecture of the Indian National Science Academy (2018) [23] and the IASTAM Zandu International (Indian Citizen) Award for Excellence in Field of Ayurveda and/or Natural Products Award 2019.[24] In 2019, he was awarded the SERB Distinguished Fellowship (2019).[25]
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