Shanta Dutta

Dr. Shanta Dutta is an Indian medical researcher of gastrointestinal diseases and served ICMR National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections as the director during 2016 to 2024.^[1] She joined the then ICMR National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in 1994 and had over 30 years of experiences in infectious Diseases especially enteric disease research. Her research interest included both basic and applied field encompassing prevention and control of acute diarrheal diseases, characterization of emerging pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, disease pathogenesis, developing vaccines, alternative therapeutics and point of care in-vitro diagnostics for enteric infections, application of AI & Analytics.

Dr. Shanta Dutta MD, Ph.D.
Shanta Dutta
Born	Kolkata
Nationality	Indian
Citizenship	Indian
Education	Calcutta National Medical College (M.B.B.S.) Kasturba Medical College (M.D.) Fukuoka Medical School, Japan (Ph.D)
Alma mater	MBBS from Calcutta University in 1986 MD from Mangalore University in 1992 Ph.D. from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan in 2006
Known for	Enteric and other infectious Disease Research especially in Cholera,Typhoid fever, Dysentery, Rotavirus diarrhoea, Covid 19, Influenzae, Anti-Microbial Resistance etc. Both basic and operational research, vaccine trials, evaluation of in-vitro diagnostics etc.
Spouse	Dr. A. Chattopadhyay
Children	One son
Awards	RONPAKU Fellowship of JSPS in 2001 Life Time Achievement Award of IAAM in 2017 Sera Bangali Award of Star Ananda in 2024
Scientific career
Fields	Tropical Enteric Diseases, Infectious diseases, Medical Microbiology & Immunology
Institutions	ICMR-National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections

In recognition to her immense contribution to the medical science she has been elected as a Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology (FWAST) in 2017; National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) in 2019,^[2] Fellow of National Academy of Medical Science (FAMS) in 2023, and awarded by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) in 2014, IAAM (Indian Association of Applied Microbiologists) in 2017, ISCA (Indian Science Congress Association) in 2018, IPHA (Indian Public Health Association) in 2016 etc.

Education

Shanta Dutta completed her MBBS in 1986 from the Calcutta National Medical College. In 1992, she completed her MD studies in Medical Microbiology from Kasturba Medical College, Karnataka. In 2006, she obtained a Ph.D. in medical science from Kyushu University, Japan.^[1]

Career

Dr. Dutta joined Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR-NICED) in August 1994 as Senior Research Officer (Scientist C) and rose to the post of Scientist G in September 2014. On 12 July 2016 she has been selected as the Director & Scientist G at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata. She has published more than 350 original research articles, review articles in peer-reviewed high impact journals and several book chapters.^[1] She has four Patents to her credit on enteric vaccines and therapeutics. She has become a recognised guide for Ph.D. degree in national Universities to complete the thesis dissertations of research fellows and become an examiner to evaluate Ph.D. thesis. She was an active member of Research Advisory Committees (RACs) of various research organizations, member of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in cholera and typhoid subcommittees, member of WHO-Global Task Force on Cholera Control (WHO-GTFCC), member of WHO TRG (Technical Resource Group) for developing TPP (Targeted Product Profile) against typhoid and cholera Rapid diagnostic Tests (RDT) and technical guide for establishing Cholera Treatment Centre in remote places.

During 2020, in COVID19 pandemic, she was instrumental to lead ICMR-NICED for dealing with all associated activities and services concerning the prompt diagnosis of suspected cases of COVID, training of the laboratory personnel of all Govt and NGO health facilities across eastern India especially West Bengal on RT PCR assay, to distribute diagnostic kits to West Bengal and neighboring states, to maintain QA/QC assay. She spearheaded the research activities at NICED on newly identified virus, took part in the nationwide serosurvey, in pre-market validation of the indigenous PCR kits. Under her leadership, NICED has been awarded ABP Ananda Shiksha Samman in 2022 for spreading Education in Eastern India.

Personal life

She was born as one of the twin sisters; her sister is a child specialist and is in Govt. service. Her spouse is a medical doctor and in Govt. service. Only son is an engineer with a management degree, serving a MNC.

On 30 June 2020, Shanta Dutta was tested positive for Corona virus.^[3] She also suffered from pneumonia at that time and was admitted to ICU of a private hospital.^[4] She recovered uncomplicated and was discharged from the hospital after a week. ^[5] She was again positive for Covid 19 during January 2022, which continued for a week,