Shiladitya DasSarma

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Shiladitya DasSarma (born November 11, 1957) is an Indian-American molecular biologist and a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore. He is best known for his work on halophiles—microorganisms that live in very salty environments—and other extremophiles.

Education and career
- He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from MIT.
- Early in his career he did research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
- He has taught and conducted research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1986–2001), the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (2001–2010), and the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (2010–present).

What he’s known for
- He helped found the fields of halophile and extremophile biology.
- In the 1980s, as a graduate student, he helped uncover mobile genetic elements in halophilic Archaea and showed that archaeal promoters differ from bacterial ones, supporting the idea of three separate domains of life (Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya).
- In the 1990s, his team decoded the genome of Halobacterium sp. NRC-1, the first genome of a halophilic microbe. They found its proteins are highly acidic, which helps life in salty, low-water environments, and this work reinforced the distinct nature of Archaea.
- In the 2000s, his research suggested that some halophile genes came from horizontal gene transfer, including genes for aerobic respiration. He also mapped key genes involved in replication, transcription, and DNA repair.
- In the 2010s, his studies of the Antarctic microbe Halorubrum lacusprofundi refined understanding of how proteins work in both high salt and cold, with implications for life in extreme environments and possibly other planets.

Purple Earth hypothesis and GVNPs
- He proposed the Purple Earth hypothesis, suggesting retinal pigments in halophilic Archaea may have appeared before chlorophyll on early Earth, which could serve as a biosignature for detecting life remotely.
- His lab studies buoyant gas vesicle nanoparticles (GVNPs) from Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 and developed a system to bioengineer GVNPs for biotechnology, including vaccine development and environmental applications.

Awards
- He received the Margaret MacVicar Award for undergraduate mentorship.