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Pawan K. Dhar

Pawan K. Dhar

Pawan K. Dhar
Pawan K. Dhar
Professor
Centre/School/Special Centre
School of Biotechnology
Room No
SBT 124, Admin Building Room 111
Email
pawandhar@mail.jnu.ac.in, pawan.dhar@outlook.com
Personal Webpage
http://www.syntheticbiology.in
Qualifications

1998:  Higher Diploma in Software Engineering, APTECH, Udupi, Karnataka
1993:  Ph.D., Human Genetics Division, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University 
1986:  M.Sc.,  Zoology, Department of Biosciences, University of Jammu
1984:  Bachelors in Science, 1st Div, University of Jammu, J&K
1980:  Matriculation, 1st Div, National High School, Srinagar, Kashmir, J&K

Areas of Interest/Specialization

Synthetic Biology and Policy

Experience

(a) Administrative

1. Member, Governing Council, NIFTEM, Thanjavur (ongoing) 
2. Member, Governing Council, Presidency University, Kolkata (ongoing)
3. Member , JNU-LBS NAA, Mussoorie  Academic Committee (ongoing)
4. Member, DRDO, Recruitment Committee, New Delhi    (completed)
5. Member, JNU-DIPAS (DRDO) Academic Committee New Delhi (ongoing)
6. Member, Advisory Committee, Hunt for Vaccine, Govt. of India & UK Govt. (ongoing)
7. Member, JNU-Indian Naval Academy Kerala Academic Committee (ongoing)
8. Member, JNU-Raman Research Institute, Bangaluru, Academic Committee (ongoing)
9. Member, JNU-CDRI Academic Committee, Lucknow (ongoing)
10. Member, IMTECH Research Council, Chandigarh (completed)
11. Member, JNU-THSTI Academic Committee, Faridabad (completed)
12. Member, JNU-NII Academic Committee, New Delhi (ongoing)
13. Member, Academic Advisory Council, CEC, IUAC, New Delhi (completed)
14. Member, JNU NIPGR Academic Committee, New Delhi (ongoing)
15. Member, DBT Task Force, Genome Engineering, New Delhi (completed)
16. Member, DBT Human Resource Development Program, New Delhi (completed)
17. Member, Indian Oil Company, Faridabad - Biosafety committee (ongoing)
18. Member, JNU-CCMB Hyderabad Academic Committee  (completed)
19. Member, Board of Studies, Gujarat National Law University (ongoing)
20. Member, Board of Studies, Biotechnology, Central Univ of Kashmir (ongoing)
21. Member, Oversight Committee, DBT Bioenergy Centres  (completed)
22. Member, MHRD, Selection Committee, Commonwealth Scholarship UK (completed)
23. Member, MHRD, Selection Committee, Scholarship, Japan (completed)
24. Member, DBT, Task Force, Marine Biotechnology, New Delhi (completed)
25. Member, NII, Faculty promotion Screening Committee, New Delhi (completed)
26. Chair   Institute of Eminence Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru University  (ongoing)
27. Member, Executive Council,  (two terms), Jawaharlal Nehru University (completed)
28. Member,  Academic Council  (two terms) Jawaharlal Nehru University  (completed)
29. Chair,  Intellectual Property Cell, Jawaharlal Nehru University (completed)
30. Director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell, Jawaharlal Nehru University (ongoing)
31. Chair, Research Excellence Award Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru University (completed)
32. Member, Corpus Fund Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru University (completed)
33. Member, International Collaboration Standing Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru University (ongoing)
34. Dean, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University (completed)
35. Head, RIKEN, Japan and Tata Consultancy Services, Hyderabad Project (completed)
36. Management Board, Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore (completed)

(b) Academic 
March 2015 - ongoing
Professor, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Oct 2013 – Feb 2015
Professor, Synthetic Biology, Dept. of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, U.P.

June 2011 – Jan 2013
Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, Symbiosis International University, Pune

April 2010 – May 2011
Director, Centre for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, Kerala

Jan 2006 – Sept 2009
Senior Scientist and Team Leader, Synthetic Biology, RIKEN Advanced Sciences Institute, Yokohama, Japan
| Adjunct Faculty, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan

July 2002 – Dec 2005
Senior Scientist & Group Leader, Systems Biology, Bioinformatics Institute, Singapore
| Adjunct Faculty, Department of Biochemistry, National University of Singapore

June 2001 – June 2002
Assistant Professor, Systems Biology, Institute of Advanced Biosciences, Tsuruoka, Japan, Keio University, Japan

May 2000 – May 2001
Visiting Scientist, Dept. of Radiation Genetics, Kyoto University, Japan

Oct 1997 - April 2001
Associate Professor & Lab Head, Human Genetics Division, Manipal University, Karnataka

Mar 1997 – Sept 1997
Visiting Scientist, Institute for Medical Radiation Biology, University of Essen, Essen, Germany

Oct 1993 - Sept 1997
Assistant Professor & Lab Head, Human Genetics Division, Manipal University, Karnataka 

International Collaboration/Consultancy

1. Led a RIKEN Institute (Yokohama, Japan) and Tata Consultancy Services (Hyderabad) project on computational metagenomics (2007-2009). 
The aim of this project was a develop a computational pipeline from a DNA sequence input to a metabolic pathway prediction

2. External Reviewer, European Science Foundation (ongoing)

Best Peer Reviewed Publications
  1. Policy and Research Planning for Synthetic Biology
    Dhar Pawan K, Pisupati B
    https://www.syntheticbiology.in/_files/ugd/cdb456_136f7cc2a81c4ddda4d7b194ba1b3cea.pdf
    [This is the First Indian Foresight report in Synthetic Biology)
     
  2. Exploring the Future of Synthetic Biology in India and its probable pathways from Infancy to Maturity
    Curr Synthetic Sys Biol 2013, 1: 106
    Singh D and PK Dhar. 
     
  3. tREPs – a new class of functional tRNA encoded peptides
    ACS Synthetic Biology ACS Omega 2022, 7, 22, 18361–18373
    Chakraborty A, M Kaushik, J Khan , D Soota, Kalai P, S Saini , S Manvati, J Singhal, A Ranganathan, S. Pati*, PK Dhar*, S Singh*.
    (* corresponding authors)
    [This is the First report that provides experimental evidence towards designing functional peptides from tRNA molecules]
     
  4. Making novel proteins from pseudogenes
    Bioinformatics. 2015: 31, 33-9
    Shidhi PR, Suravajhala P, Nayeema A, Nair AS, Singh S, Dhar PK.
     
  5. Building Biofoundry India: Challenges and Path Forward
    Synth. Biol (Oxf) 2021, 6(1):y`sab015
    Panda B, Pawan K. Dhar.
     
  6. Making novel proteins from pseudogenes

     Bioinformatics. 2015: 31(1):33-9
     P.R.Shidhi, P. Suravajhala, A. Nayeema, AS. Nair, S. Singh, PK. Dhar

7.  Synthesizing non-natural parts from natural genomic template  
     J. Biol. Engg.  2009: 3, 2
     Dhar PK, * CS Thwin, K Tun, Y Tsumoto, S Maurer-Stroh, F Eisenhaber, U Surana
     (*Corresponding Author)
     [This was the first report on making functional proteins from the non-expressing DNA
     leading to the establishment of"Dark Genome Project"  - going on since 2009]

Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books

BOOKS

1.         The Dark Genome - a personal voyage.
             Amazon Kindle Edition 2022. ASIN: ‎ B0B58WGHR7
             Pawan K Dhar.

2.         Genome Engineering via CRISPR-Cas9 system.
             Academic Press, USA.
             Vijai Singh, Pawan K. Dhar (2020)

3.         Systems and Synthetic Biology
             Springer Publishers, USA
             Vikram Singh, Pawan Dhar (2015)

4.        E-Cell System : Basic concepts and applications
            Kluwer Academic Publishers & Landes Biosciences. USA.
            S. Arjun, Pawan Dhar, Masaru Tomita (2005)
 
5.        Textbook of Biochemistry
            Jay Pee Brothers Medical Publishers, New Delhi, (1998).
            Vasudevan DM, Sreekumari, S, Dhar Pawan, Bhat PG

6.        Human Genetics
            Jay Pee Brothers Medical Publishers, New Delhi, (1997).
            Dhar Pawan
 

CHAPTERS

1.        Building a novel drug discovery platform from the dark genome
            Book chapter in: “Translational Biotechnology: A Journey from Laboratory to Clinics"
            Neeraj Verma, Pawan K Dhar. Editor: Yasha Hasija. Elsevier 2021

2.        Modeling Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Multicellular signaling
            Book chapter in: Introduction to Systems Biology Editor: Sandun Choi, Caltech
            Humana Press, USA, 2007
            Hao Zhu, Pawan Dhar

3.        Computer Aided Design of Signaling Networks
            Book chapter in: Information processing and living systems. Vladmir Bajic Eds.
            World Scientific Press (2005)
            Zhu Hao, Pawan Dhar
 
4.        Electronic Cell Environments: Combining Gene, Protein and Metabolic Networks
            Book Chapter in: Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine.  Deisboeck TS, Yasha
            Kresh J, Kepler TB Eds. (2003) Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
            Pawan Dhar, Masaru Tomita
 
5.        E- Cell: Computer simulation of Electronic Cell
            Book chapter in: Encyclopedia of Molecular cell biology and Molecula Medicine.
            Robert A Myers Eds.WILEY-VCH Verlag, GmbH & Co (2003)
            Pawan Dhar, Kouichi Takahashi, Yoichi Nakayama, Masaru Tomita

6.        Medical Genetics Questions
            Exam Master Corporation, Delaware, USA. (Electronic publication), (2000)
            Pawan Dhar
 
7.        Human Genetics
            Book chapter in: Textbook of Pedodontics
            Tandon S Eds. Paras Medical Publishers. Hyderabad., India, (2001)
            Pawan Dhar

Patents (if any)

1. A BIOMOLECULE BASED DATA STORAGE SYSTEM
Oct. 16, 2015 Ref: PCT/IB2015/057964 (US Patent office)
Girik MALIK and Pawan K. DHAR

2. METHOD OF DATA COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION
Apr 28, 2016   Ref: 201611014807 (Indian Patent Office) July 19, 2016 PCT/IB2016/054294 (International Patent)
Girik MALIK, and  Pawan K. DHAR

3. Co-Founder and Chief Mentor, Clear Meat Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
Clear Meat is the first lab grown meat Company in India. The mandate of the company is to provide lab grown meat
that is safe, nutritious and affordable. This has led to the launch of "slaughter free" animal cell culture medium for
growing cells in-vitro. The product (ClearX9) has received good market feedback and is currently in the scale up pipeline

4. Chief Mentor, Foresight Biotech Pvt Ltd.
Our work on Dark Genome has led to spinning off this company. It's mandate is to generate therapeutic molecules
from the non-expressed DNA sequences.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.