This year’s Nobel prize in Chemistry has an Indian connection. Samarth Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics Research Centre, founded by Emmanuelle Charpentier, hails from Belagavi.
This was revealed after a tweet from Dr. Kulkarni was shared widely among Belagavi residents with congratulatory messages and tags about his schooling in the city.
He acknowledged them saying: “I am grateful for all the congratulatory notes from everyone in Belagavi and hope that we can continue to work hard towards making medicine from this technology.”
Prof. Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna are the two scientists who have been selected for the coveted prize for their work on “genetic scissors”. Prof. Charpentier founded the CRISPR laboratory a few years ago.
Dr. Kulkarni, who serves as the CEO of the institution, studied in Rashtriya Military School and GSS Pre University College here. Dr. Kulkarni, called Sam by his friends in the U.S., is a young bio-technology scientist who has been working with CRISPR since 2015.
He has served as the company’s Chief Business Officer and president before being promoted as CEO. He has also worked for pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. He serves on the board of some technology companies.
After graduating in B.Tech in Biotechnology from IIT Kharagpur, he received a Ph.D in bioengineering and nanotechnology from the University of Washington. He has conducted research on the delivery of biological drugs and molecular diagnostics. He has authored several publications in leading scientific and business journals.
