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Amit Dutt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amit Dutt
Born (1973-09-06) 6 September 1973 (age 53)
Patna, India
Education
Known forStudies on Fibroblast growth factor receptor
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Workplaces
  • Alex Hajnal (ZU)
  • Vanga Siva Reddy (DU)
  • Arif Ali (JMI)

Amit Dutt (born 6 September 1973) is an Indian scientist and geneticist. He is a Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Department of Genetics, University of Delhi South Campus since February 2024, and previously served as the principal investigator at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) of Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai (2010–2024). He holds two doctoral degrees — one in Plant Genetics from ICGEB/Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and another in Developmental Biology from the Institute of Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Switzerland — and conducted his postdoctoral research at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. His research focuses on cancer genomics and precision oncology, with pioneering contributions to the genomics of epithelial cancers, particularly those prevalent in Indian patients, identifying potential therapeutic targets in lung, tongue, gallbladder, and breast cancers. His lab has also developed widely used computational tools including TMC-SNPdb, HPVDetector, and the Infectious Pathogen Detector, and has expanded into cost-effective liquid biopsy approaches, including fragmentomics and DNA methylation. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to medical sciences in 2017.[1][note 1] He is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship, the Ramalingaswami Fellowship, the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Fellowship, and the DBT Tata Innovation Fellowship, and has accumulated over 11,600 citations for his research contributions.

Biography

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Delhi University

Amit Dutt, born on 6 September 1973 in Patna, capital of the Indian state of Bihar, earned a BSc in botany from Deshbandhu College, Delhi University in 1994 and continued there to complete a post-graduate diploma in Biochemical Technology in 1995 from the Sri Venkateswara College.[2] Moving to Jamia Millia Islamia, he obtained his MSc in 1997 and enrolled for doctoral studies at the Delhi centre of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology to secure a PhD in plant genetics in 2000, guided by Vanga Siva Reddy of Delhi University and Arif Ali of Jamia Millia Islamia.[3] Subsequently, he traveled to the University of Zurich and, working under the guidance of Alex Hajnal at the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences of the university, secured another PhD in Developmental Biology in 2004.[4][5]

Dutt continued in Zurich to work at the Institute of Neuropathology of the university and in 2005, he moved to join the laboratory of Matthew Meyerson at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT as a research associate, working there till 2010 and stationing at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard Medical School affiliate.[2] On his return to India in October 2010, he joined Tata Memorial Centre at the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Navi Mumbai, where he served as the principal investigator at scientist (grade F) and headed the Integrated Cancer Genomics Lab, popularly known as Dutt Lab.[6] He served at ACTREC until 2024, before joining the University of Delhi South Campus as a Professor at the Department of Genetics in February 2024.

Legacy and honors

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Protein MMP10 PDB 1q3a

Dutt is known to have made significant contributions to the pathobiology and genomics of epithelial cancers, blending basic and translational cancer genomics with functional mechanistic insights, with a focus on cancers prevalent among Indian patients, garnering over 11,600 citations globally (h-index: 41).[7][8] The group led by him has been engaged in the study of cancer in the lung, breast, gallbladder, head and neck, tongue, and thyroid, and his research may be classified under three heads: cancer genomics, functional genomics, and pathogen discovery.[6]

During his PhD in Developmental Biology at the University of Zurich, Dutt provided the first evidence for differential activity of an EGF splice variant, amplifying inductive signaling through the serine protease ROM-1 during vulval development in C. elegans. At the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, he identified novel oncogenic FGFR2 mutations, driving therapeutic advancements in endometrial cancers.

In lung cancer, Dutt described the first comprehensive landscape of actionable mutations in approximately 450 lung adenocarcinoma patients, identifying novel FGFR3 activating mutations in 5.5% of cases and establishing FGFR3 as a therapeutic target.[9] His characterization of approximately 450 lung squamous subtype genomes similarly highlighted FGFR1 as a target, supporting subtype-specific lung cancer treatments by repurposing FGFR-targeted therapies.[10] He also developed a mouse model demonstrating that weekly dosing of osimertinib achieves therapeutic efficacy, potentially reducing treatment costs to one-seventh of the standard monthly cost, leading to a clinical trial at Tata Memorial Centre.[11] A 2025 study identified co-occurring tumour suppressor gene mutations as early indicators of relapse and poor prognosis in EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma patients, highlighting ctDNA analysis as a non-invasive tool for monitoring clonal evolution.[12]

In tongue cancer, Dutt provided the first genetic alteration landscape for Indian patients, noting a lack of HPV infection and a tobacco-associated mutational signature. He established the miR-944/MMP10/AXL-axis as critical for inducing the EMT phenotype,[13] identified NOTCH1 alterations as essential for maintaining stem-like cells, and proposed MMP10 as a prognostic biomarker to potentially spare early-stage patients from elective neck dissection, with a clinical trial underway at Tata Memorial Centre.[14] His comprehensive analysis of infectious pathogens across multiple cancers revealed a significant prevalence of Fusobacterium nucleatum in tongue tumours, mutually exclusive with HPV,[15] and identified a novel UBE3C-LRP5 fusion transcript in head and neck cancer activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, with the FDA-approved drug pyrvinium pamoate showing promise in inhibiting tumour growth driven by this fusion.[16] He also identified a genome signature associating tobacco chewing with oral cancer,[17] and proposed MMP10 as a candidate to predict metastases in early-stage tongue cancer, potentially sparing patients from elective neck dissection.[18]

In gallbladder cancer, Dutt proposed a carcinogenesis model tracing progression from dysplasia to invasive adenocarcinoma,[19] identified a novel association with non-typhoidal Salmonella infection as an inflammatory trigger,[20] and established that KRAS (G12V), but not KRAS (G13D), mutations predict response to anti-EGFR treatment.

In breast cancer, he elucidated the molecular basis of progesterone's impact on PR-negative cells[21] and identified loss-of-function mutations in CDKN1B that confer resistance to tamoxifen and fulvestrant, while positioning CDKN1B as a prognostic biomarker guiding patients toward CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy.[22] His lab has further extended its work to thyroid cancers, with comprehensive genomic profiling of both papillary and anaplastic thyroid cancers in Indian patients, identifying novel alterations including those in THRA as potential modifiers of cellular plasticity.[23]

Of most significance, translating leads from his lab, Dutt developed a diagnostic test to detect EGFR mutations for lung cancer patients, reducing its cost from approximately $250 to $12 per test, currently offered at Tata Memorial Hospital on a routine basis.[24] He developed ClinOme, a GUI-based automated tool for genomic analysis, now implemented in the Medical Oncology Department at Tata Memorial Hospital and commercialised through an MOU with 4baseCare Genomics Pvt Ltd. He contributed to the development of a first-of-its-kind Indian population-specific cancer gene panel based on whole exome and transcriptome data from 1,500 cancer patients.[25] Computationally, his team developed HPVDetector, a freely distributable tool for detecting HPV types and integration sites using NGS data, adopted by over 350 laboratories across 39 countries.[4] He established TMC-SNPdb, the first Indian SNP reference database from whole exome sequencing of 1,800 individuals, used by 200 research labs across 13 countries,[26] and the Infectious Pathogen Detector (IPD), an in-silico GUI-based pipeline for NGS-based pathogen analysis, utilised by over 50 labs across 11 countries. His lab has also filed a patent (Application No. 202321054451) for novel fusion transcripts and their use in treating cancer. He also pioneered Raman Spectroscopy-based detection of RNA viruses in saliva, establishing a proof-of-principle for a rapid diagnostic method.[27]

More recently, Dutt has established an ICMR Centre for Advanced Research at the University of Delhi South Campus, with a dedicated focus on cost-effective liquid biopsy approaches exploring the biology of fragmentomics and DNA methylation in cancer. The centre houses a state-of-the-art facility at the Dutt Lab, comprising an Element Aviti next-generation sequencing platform, a Bio-Rad QX600 ddPCR system with Automated Droplet Generator (Auto DG), an Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 for nucleic acid quality assessment, and a QIAGEN EZ2 Connect for automated nucleic acid extraction. This infrastructure positions the lab at the forefront of non-invasive cancer diagnostics research in India, with particular interest in cancer-associated pathogens using spatial transcriptomics.

Awards and honours

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The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Dutt the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to medical sciences in 2017.[1][note 2] He is also a recipient of the following awards and fellowships:

Other activities

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Dutt has supervised ten doctoral graduates and trained eight postdoctoral fellows, with six PhD students and four postdoctoral researchers currently under his mentorship. He is a member of the faculty of F1000Prime and holds memberships in associations such as the American Association for Cancer Research, the Indian chapter of the Lung Cancer Consortium of Asia, the Society of Biological Chemists (India), and the Indian Association for Cancer Research. He serves on the editorial boards of BMC Genomics, PLOS One, Swiss Medical Weekly, and Frontiers in Oncology, and actively lends his expertise to several scientific advisory committees and selection panels for various government and private organisations, including committees of the Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, and the Indian Council of Medical Research.

In 2021, Dutt led CoviScience@ACTREC, a community outreach initiative launched by scientists at ACTREC to combat the COVID-19 pandemic by vaccinating and educating underprivileged populations, successfully administering 6,557 vaccine doses funded through crowdfunding. He also established the R G Manudhane Scholarship Fund at ACTREC, creating a corpus of ₹60 lakhs through philanthropic donation to provide consistent fellowship support to PhD students facing funding shortfalls.

Selected bibliography

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Long link - please select award year to see details
  2. ↑ Long link - please select award year to see details

References

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  1. 1 2 "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Biographical Information – Amit Dutt". Amit Dutt Lab. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "Dr. Amit Dutt – Biography". Amit Dutt Lab. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 "About Fellow – Amit Dutt". ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  5. ↑ "Amit Dutt – Principal Investigator". Amit Dutt Lab. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Integrated Cancer Genomics Lab". Amit Dutt Lab. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  7. ↑ "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners. New Delhi: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2017.
  9. ↑ "Lung squamous patients harboring druggable mutations have lower median overall survival". News Medical. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "New study recommends next-generation sequencing for extending lung cancer treatment". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "Study finds popping a weekly cancer pill instead of daily is enough to prevent regrowths". Research Matters. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  12. ↑ "Why does lung cancer recur? It's all in the genes, finds new study". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "miR-944/MMP10/AXL-axis Predict Metastasis in Tongue Cancer". Nature Cancer Community. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  14. ↑ "Tata Memorial develops novel biomarker for tongue cancer spread to spare 70% patients". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  15. ↑ "The role Fusobacterium plays in oral cancer patients in India". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "UBE3C-LRP5 is a novel oncogenic driver and potential therapeutic target in cancer". Nature Cancer Community. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  17. ↑ "New genetic marker for oral cancer". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[dead link]
  18. ↑ "Indian team uses repurposed drug to treat oral cancer". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[dead link]
  19. ↑ "Existing drug can be used for treating gallbladder cancer". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[dead link]
  20. ↑ "Non-typhoidal Salmonella in gallbladder cancer". IndiaBioscience. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  21. ↑ "Breast cancer: more insights on how hormonal therapy works". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[dead link]
  22. ↑ "A missing tumour-suppressor protein drives breast cancer drug resistance". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  23. ↑ "Revolutionising disease's treatment: Twin study identifies novel risk genes, molecular subtypes in thyroid cancer among Indians". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  24. ↑ "For lung cancer patients in India, key to treatment could be malfunctioning gene". The Indian Express. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  25. ↑ "TARGT Indiegene NGS panel". ANI News. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  26. ↑ "Researchers develop India-specific cancer genome toolkit". India Science Wire. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  27. ↑ "Detecting RNA virus in saliva samples using Raman spectroscopy". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[dead link]

Further reading

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