Dipak Sarkar, Distinguished Professor, Department of Animal Sciences. Photo: John O’Boyle.
Dipak Sarkar, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, was recently elected as a 2023 Fellow in the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Academy.
The IUPS Academy represents the diversity and excellence of worldwide physiology. It celebrates and publicizes the important contributions made by physiologists globally to science and health. As an international non-political organization, IUPS is a body that represents the entire community of physiological researchers, teachers, and students.
Its mission is to advance physiological research and teaching and its translation into benefits for health and society. The vision for the Academy is that it will be a resource for physiologists. In addition, it will be a source of information and contacts for journalists, funders, charities, politicians, allied health professionals, or members of the public.
The criteria for the fellowship requite that the candidates will have made exceptional contributions to physiological sciences, in the form of significant original discoveries, sustained contributions to scholarship, or rendered service to physiology internationally.
“This award recognizes my laboratory research works internationally, said Distinguished Professor Sarkar. “That is very rewarding!”
Dipak Sarkar has a long career within Neuroendocrinology. His research is centered around understanding how hypothalamic neurohormones regulate reproduction, stress responses, and immune function, and how this neuroendocrine control mechanism is disrupted by developmental alcohol exposures.
Recently, his group has uncovered that fetal alcohol induces epigenetic modifications of the hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin hormone gene which passes via the male germline for at least four subsequent generations via a transgenerational mechanism. This is a key discovery requiring re-interpretation of genetics studies on alcoholism. His group also pioneered the use of stem cells derived proopiomelanocortin neurons in stress control, immune activation, and cancer growth prevention.
Read more about Sarkar’ research.
About The International Union of Physiological Sciences
IUPS is a nonprofit federation of physiological societies founded in 1953 and the only organization representing the physiological sciences worldwide. In 2021 IUPS established the academy consisting of honorary fellows and fellows to publicize the important contributions made by physiologists globally to science and health. As an international non-political organization, IUPS is a body that represents the entire community of physiological researchers, teachers, and students. Its mission is to advance physiological research and teaching and its translation into benefits for health and society. There are only four Americans elected as a fellow prior to the election of Professor Dipak Sarkar this year.
