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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 1 | Page : 4-5 |
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Introduction to an Editorial Board Member
Chandrasekharan Cheranellore Kartha
Department of Disease Biology and Molecular Medicine, Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
| Date of Web Publication | 26-May-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
Chandrasekharan Cheranellore Kartha
Department of Disease Biology and Molecular Medicine, Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2395-5414.182986
How to cite this article:
Kartha CC. Introduction to an Editorial Board Member. J Pract Cardiovasc Sci 2016;2:4-5 |
CC. Kartha (born 1951) is presently an Honorary Distinguished Professor of Disease Biology and Molecular Medicine at Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, an autonomous institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. He was earlier the Senior Professor and Head of the Division of Cellular and Molecular Cardiology at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, an institute of National Importance under Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He also served as the Dean of academic affairs of the institute in the years 2000–2003.
Kartha has an outstanding record as a cardiovascular pathologist and as a serious investigator in cardiovascular disease biology. His contributions to the understanding of molecular basis of diseases have received acclaim among physicians and scientists alike over the years. A notable feature of his research is the distinct emphasis on questions directly related to the mechanisms of human cardiovascular diseases. He has employed tools of cell biology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, experimental cardiology, and epidemiology for his pursuits. He has thus been able to provide a link between basic sciences and clinical cardiology to the young investigators he has trained.
Kartha was graduated from the Trivandrum Medical College in the year 1974 and took his MD degree in Pathology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1979. He joined the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute in its formative years as a Lecturer in Pathology and rose to the position of Additional Professor of Pathology in 1988. He was responsible for organizing and leading the cardiac pathology services and an electron microscopy laboratory in the institute. He was also associated with the early stages of development of disposable blood bags, dental materials, and a large diameter vascular graft. In 1993, he was appointed as the Professor and head of the then newly created Division of Cellular and Molecular Cardiology, an interdisciplinary group for cardiovascular research. He is credited with organizing the first Molecular Cardiology Division in India.
During the early part of his career, his focus was to delineate the cause of endomyocardial fibrosis, a tropical cardiomyopathy. His studies disengaged the etiopathogenesis of the disease from a confusing network of hypotheses and placed it in the context of a geochemical cause with the primary tissue response being interstitial in nature. Kartha has evaluated through experimental and epidemiological studies, the geochemical hypothesis proposed by MS. Valiathan and Kartha. The geochemical view on the causation of endomyocardial fibrosis was later cited in many standard textbooks and definitive monographs in cardiology and pathology.
His studies on endomyocardial fibrosis spurred his interest in the biology of cardiac endothelium and he has made original contributions to the current understanding of the role of endocardial endothelium in the regulation of cardiac function and in cardiac remodeling secondary to cardiac failure.
In 2009, Kartha was invited by the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology as Professor of Eminence to initiate translational cardiovascular biology and establish a Division of Cardiovascular Disease Biology at the center. He has established a most comprehensive interdisciplinary laboratory for cardiovascular research at the Rajiv Gandhi Center, where he also initiated research on a broad range of clinically relevant themes which include cardiac stem cell biology, vascular disease in type 2 diabetes, hereditary basis for varicose veins, molecular pathogenesis of tetralogy of Fallot, and endothelial remodeling in cardiac failure. These efforts have led to the identification of cyclophilin A as a biomarker for vascular disease in type 2 diabetes and the discovery that Forkhead box C2 promoter variant c.-512C.T is associated with increased susceptibility to varicose veins.
He is an elected Fellow of Royal College of Physicians, London, International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (Canada), National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences (India), and Indian College of Pathology.
Kartha has published 114 articles in peer-reviewed journals, authored a book, edited four books, focused editions of two journals, authored 15 reviews, and contributed chapters in 14 books. He has also authored several popular science articles for Sasthragathi and Thanima, Malayalam magazines, and a chapter on Medical Technology for the Balakairali Illustrated Encyclopedia on Technology published by Kerala State Institute of Children's Literature.
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