Siddhartha Mukherjee

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Siddhartha Mukherjee
Mukherjee in 2017
Born (1970-07-21) 21 July 1970 (age 54)
New Delhi, India
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known for
Spouse
Cancer epidemiology
Genetic epidemiology
InstitutionsColumbia University
ThesisThe processing and presentation of viral antigens (1997)
Websitesiddharthamukherjee.com

Siddhartha Mukherjee (

Royal Society Prize for Science Books
.

After completing secondary school education in India, Mukherjee studied biology at Stanford University, obtained a D.Phil. from

Columbia University Medical Center in New York City in 2009. As of 2018, he is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology.[7]

Featured in the Time 100 list of most influential people, Mukherjee writes for The New Yorker and is a columnist in The New York Times. He is described as part of a select group of doctor-writers (such as Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande) who have "transformed the public discourse on human health",[8] and allowed a generation of readers a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of science and medicine.[9] His research concerns the physiology of cancer cells, immunological therapy for blood cancers, and the discovery of bone- and cartilage-forming stem cells in the vertebrate skeleton.[10]

The Government of India conferred on him its fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, in 2014.[11]

Early life and education

Siddhartha Mukherjee was born to a Bengali Brahmin family in New Delhi, India. His father, Sibeswar Mukherjee, was an executive with Mitsubishi, and his mother Chandana Mukherjee, was a former school teacher from Calcutta (now Kolkata). He attended St. Columba's School in Delhi, where he won the school's highest award, the 'Sword of Honour', in 1989. As a biology major at Stanford University, he worked in Nobel Laureate Paul Berg's laboratory, defining cellular genes that change the behaviours of cancer cells. He earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa[12] in 1992, and completed his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in 1993.[1]

Mukherjee won a Rhodes Scholarship for doctoral research at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. He worked on the mechanism of activation of the immune system by viral antigens. He was awarded a D.Phil. in 1997 for his thesis titled The processing and presentation of viral antigens.[13] After graduation, he attended Harvard Medical School, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 2000.[14] Between 2000 and 2003 he worked as a resident in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. From 2003 to 2006 he trained in hematology-oncology as a Fellow at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute (under Harvard Medical School) in Boston, Massachusetts.[15][16]

Career

In 2009, Mukherjee joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the

Columbia University Medical Center as an assistant professor.[1][17] The medical center is attached to the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.[18]

He was previously affiliated with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He has worked as the Plummer Visiting professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the Joseph Garland lecturer at the Massachusetts Medical Society, and an honorary visiting professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.[19] His laboratory is based at Columbia University's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.[20]

In January 2025, Mukherjee launched Manas AI, an AI-enabled drug discovery startup, together with Reid Hoffman, with about $25 million in venture capital funding.[21]

Contributions

Cancer research

Mukherjee is a trained

blood-forming (haematopoietic) stem cells. Blood-forming stem cells are present in the bone marrow in very specific microenvironments. Osteoblasts, cells that form bone, are one of the principal components in this environment. These cells regulate the process of blood cell formation and development by providing them with signals to divide, remain quiescent, or maintain their stem cell properties.[23] Distortion in the development of these cells results in severe blood cancers, such as myelodysplastic syndrome and leukemia.[24] Mukherjee's research has been recognised through many grants from the National Institutes of Health and from private foundations.[10][25][26]

Mukherjee and his co-workers have identified several genes and chemicals that can alter the microenvironment, or niche, and thereby alter the behavior of normal stem cells, as well as cancer cells.[27][28][29][30][31][32] Two such chemicals – proteasome inhibitors[27] and activin inhibitors[33] – are under clinical trials.[34][35] Mukherjee's lab has also identified novel genetic mutations in myelodysplasia and acute myelogenous leukaemia and has played a leading role in finding therapies for these diseases.[36][37]

Bone formation

Mukherjee's team is also known for defining and characterizing skeletal stem/progenitor cells (also called osteochondroreticular or OCR cells). In 2015, they prospectively identified these progenitor cells from bone, and showed, using lineage tracing, that these cells can give rise to bone, cartilage, and

reticular cells (hence the term "OCR" cells). They established that these cells form a part of the adult skeleton in vertebrates, and that they maintain and repair the skeleton.[38]

OCR cells are among the newest progenitor cells to be defined in vertebrates.[39] The work generated wide interest and was described in journals as a major breakthrough for understanding biology and for understanding diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.[40][41] Mukherjee's team have shown that OCR cells can be transplanted into animals, and they can regenerate cartilage and bone after fractures.[38] With Daniel L. Worthley's team at the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute they have been working on the translational cell-based research on osteoarthritis and cancer.[38][42]

Metabolic therapies for cancer

Mukherjee's lab has also been investigating the interaction between cancer genetics and the microenvironment, including the metabolic environment. It has been well established that metabolism in cancer is fundamentally altered,[43] Mukherjee's team has found the role of a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet (ketogenic diet) in cancer therapy. They showed that ketogenic diet suppressed insulin production in the body, and this in turn enhances pharmaceutical inhibition of PIK3CA, a gene which is mutated and commonly overactive in cancers.[44]

Immune therapies for acute leukemia

Mukherjee's lab, with the help of

chimeric antigen receptor redirected T cells (CAR-T) therapy in a joint venture called Vor BioPharma since 2016.[45] They have combined CAR-T therapies with genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells to specifically target malignant hematopoietic lineages, while transplanted stem cells replenish the lineage but remain antigenically concealed. This technology has been developed so that, in addition to B cell malignancies, other lineage specific cancers could be targeted.[46] This provides an important new approach to managing acute myeloid leukemia.[47]

Books

In 2010,

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer[48] detailing the evolution of diagnosis and treatment of human cancers from ancient Egypt to the latest developments in chemotherapy and targeted therapy.[49] On 18 April 2011, the book won the annual Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction; the citation called it "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science."[50] It was listed in the "All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books" (the 100 most influential books of the last century)[4] and the "Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2010" by Time in 2011.[51] It was also listed in "The 10 Best Books of 2010" by The New York Times[52] and "Top 10 Books of 2010" by O, The Oprah Magazine.[53] In 2011, it was nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.[54]

Based on the book,

Emmy Award.[56]

Mukherjee's 2016 book

Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2016, "the Nobel Prize of science writing".[58] The book was also the recipient of the 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award in Science.[59]

Ken Burns made a two-part PBS Television documentary film The Gene: An Intimate History in 2020.[60]

In his book The Song of the Cell, published in 2022, Mukherjee describes the history and medical mystery from the discovery of cell. Narrated in metaphors, many of which he created, such as "gunslinging sheriff" for antibody and "gumshoe detective" to T cell, he tells the development of cell biology and how it became vital to modern medicine, from genetic engineering to immunotherapies.[61] Suzanne O'Sullivan, reviewing in The Guardian, explains the book as a tool for "the reader to imagine they are an astronaut investigating the cell as if it is an unknown spacecraft".[62]

Criticism and response

In his 2016 article "Same but different" in

histone modification and DNA methylation). Giving an analogy of his mother and her twin sister, he explains:

Chance events—injuries, infections, infatuations; the haunting trill of that particular nocturne—impinge on one twin and not on the other. Genes are turned on and off in response to these events, as epigenetic marks are gradually layered above genes, etching the genome with its own scars, calluses, and freckles.[63]

Mukherjee also claimed that understanding of epigenetics "would overturn fundamental principles of biology, including our understanding of evolution," as he said:

Conceptually, a key element of classical Darwinian evolution is that genes do not retain an organism's experiences in a permanently heritable manner. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in the early nineteenth century, had supposed that when an antelope strained its neck to reach a tree its efforts were somehow passed down and its progeny evolved into giraffes. Darwin discredited that model. Giraffes, he proposed, arose through heritable variation and natural selection—a tall-necked specimen appears in an ancestral tree-grazing animal, and, perhaps during a period of famine, this mutant survives and is naturally selected. But, if epigenetic information can be transmitted through sperm and eggs, an organism would seem to have a direct conduit to the heritable features of its progeny. Such a system would act as a wormhole for evolution—a shortcut through the glum cycles of mutation and natural selection... Lamarck is being rehabilitated into the new Darwin.[63]

The article, an excerpt from the chapter "The First Derivative of Identity" of his book The Gene: An Intimate History,[64] "unleashed a torrent of criticism" from geneticists, as The Guardian book review wrote.[65] As David Hornby of the University of Sheffield put it: "all (scientific) hell broke loose! It seemed to some that the slumbering giant of Lamarck was about to gain a new audience."[66] Mukherjee foresaw the reaction, as he noted: "These fantasies should invite skepticism."[63]

The article was critiqued by geneticists such as

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, opined that, "Mukherjee seemed not to realize that transcription factors occupy the top of the hierarchy of epigenetic information," and said, "histone modifications at most act as cogs in the machinery."[67] Omission of transcription factors was viewed as an "overarching" mistake,[68] as Richard Mann at the Columbia University Medical Center remarked: "Only a talmudic-like reading can reveal a hint that something other than histone modifications are at play."[67]

It is now generally believed that histone modification and DNA methylations are major factors of epigenetic functions, aging and certain diseases,

transcription factors.[70] However, they contribute little to development.[71][72] In response, Mukherjee did admit that omission of transcription factors "was an error" on his part.[67] However, The New Yorker defended the article that: "None of it negates the fundamental importance of transcription factors."[68]

Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago remarked: "Until there is evidence for this kind of evolutionary transformation—ANY evidence, people should stop yammering about this kind of 'Lamarckian' evolution."[73] Phillip Ball, British science writer and editor of the journal Nature, also agreed that Mukherjee certainly "got some things wrong". Writing in the Prospect, he said, "Such claims [that some epigenetic changes can be inherited] are controversial—but even if they prove to be true, it seems highly unlikely that the effect will persist for many generations or will have long-term consequences for human evolution."[73] According to Ute Deichmann of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, even if there are evidences of variation by epigenetic inheritance, they would not be counted as Lamarckian as they are not acquired or adaptive.[74]

Mukherjee did not say that epigenetic processes have established Lamarckism, as he noted in his article that "epigenetic scratch marks are rarely, if ever, carried forward across generations."[63] In an interview on NPR, he said, "[Lamarckian inheritance is] very rarely true and I would say almost never true".[75]

Mukherjee also criticises the

IQ test as a measure of intelligence, and endorses the theory of multiple intelligences (introduced by Howard Gardner) over general intelligence. He argues that the results of IQ tests for determining general intelligence do not represent intelligence in the real world. Reviewing the book in The Spectator, Stuart Ritchie, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, remarked that Gardner's theory is "debunked" and that "general intelligence is probably the most well-replicated phenomenon in all of psychological science."[76]

Bibliography

Books

Essays and reporting

  • Mukherjee, Siddhartha (1 March 2021). "The COVID conundrum : why does the pandemic seem far deadlier in some countries than in others?". Coronavirus Chronicles. The New Yorker. 97 (2): 18–24.[e]
  • Siddhartha Mukherjee, "Early Warnings: New technologies promise to catch more cancers sooner. But such screening can pose hidden hazards", The New Yorker, 23 June 2025, pp. 36–43. "In 2021... the United States spent more than forty billion dollars on cancer screening. On average, a year's worth of screening yields nine million positive results—of which 8.8 million are false. Millions endure follow-up scans, biopsies, and anxiety so that just over two hundred thousand true positives can be found, of which an even smaller fraction can be cured by local treatment, like excision. [p. 38.] Early work with cell-free DNA hints [that] blood tests... may one day tell us not only where a cancer began but whether it's likely to pose a threat to health. For now... hope still outpaces certainty and the holy grail of perfect screening remains just out of reach." (p. 43.)

———————

Bibliography notes
  1. PMC 3469866
    .
  2. ^ Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science, Simon & Schuster, 2015 (page visited on 10 December 2015).
  3. ^ James Gleick, "The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times May 15, 2016 review
  4. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  5. ^ Online version is titled "Why does the pandemic seem to be hitting some countries harder than others?".

Awards and honours

Siddhartha Mukherjee receiving Padma Shri Award from Pranab Mukherjee, President of India, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 26 April 2014.

Mukherjee has won many awards including:

Personal life

Mukherjee lives in New York and is married to artist Sarah Sze, winner of a MacArthur "Genius" grant and representative of the United States to the 2013 Venice Biennale. They have two daughters, Leela and Aria.[94]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Rogers, Kara. "Siddhartha Mukherjee: Indian-born American physician, scientist, and writer". www.britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  2. ^ "Pulitzer for US-Indian Siddhartha Mukherjee's book". BBC. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  3. ^ a b Flood, A. (1 December 2011). "Biography of cancer wins Guardian First Book award". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Cruz, Gilbert (17 August 2011). "All-TIME 100 Nonfiction Books". Time. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  5. ^ "The New York Times Best Sellers". The New York Times. 12 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  6. ^ a b New York Times Sunday Book Review Editorial Staff (24 November 2010). "100 Notable Books of 2010". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  7. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee, author-doctor, is guest at Express Adda today". The Indian Express. 27 March 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  8. ^ Mackovich, Ron (8 March 2018). "Renowned oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee named USC's 2018 commencement speaker". USC News. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  9. ^ Solomon, Andrew (22 February 2018). "Literature about medicine may be all that can save us". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  10. ^ a b "Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil". Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI). Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Indo-American Siddhartha Mukherjee calls Padma Shri a great Honor". IANS. Biharprabha News. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  12. ^ "'The Gene,' by Siddhartha Mukherjee".
  13. OCLC 43182774
    .
  14. ^ "Medical Alumnus Wins Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction". Harvard Magazine. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  15. ^ Levin, Ann. "Cancer's Biographer". The Record (Columbia University). Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  16. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil". www.columbiadoctors.org. Columbia University. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  17. ^ McGrath, Charles (8 November 2010). "How Cancer Acquired Its Own Biographer". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  18. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil". NewYork-Presbyterian. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  19. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., Ph.D." ACT for NIH. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Physician's Profile: Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil". Columbia University Medical Center, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  21. ^ Jin, Berber (27 January 2025). "Reid Hoffman Raises $24.6 Million for AI Cancer Research Startup". The Wall Street Journal.
  22. ^ Mukherjee, Siddhartha (2015). "Soon we'll cure diseases with a cell, not a pill". Ted Talks. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  23. PMID 24429631
    .
  24. PMID 20305640
    .
  25. ^ "Insight". The Rockefeller University. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  26. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil". ColumbiaDoctors. Columbia University Medical Center. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  27. ^
    PMID 18219387
    .
  28. S2CID 26436611
    .
  29. PMID 20843837
    .
  30. PMID 27641501
    .
  31. PMID 28684528
    .
  32. PMID 28405523
    .
  33. PMID 20194748
    .
  34. PMID 28843768
    .
  35. PMID 29331635
    .
  36. PMID 20305640
    .
  37. PMID 26710888
    .
  38. ^
    PMID 25594183
    .
  39. S2CID 29933567
    .
  40. PMID 25594172
    .
  41. S2CID 52861069
    .
  42. PMID 29666172
    .
  43. PMID 21801600
    .
  44. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-17-KN01
    .
  45. ^ Craig, Jessica (10 May 2016). "CAR T-cell start-up launched". mdedge.com. Frontline Medical Communications Inc. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  46. ^ "About VOR". Vor Biopharma. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  47. ^ Walters, Jenny (18 May 2018). "Beyond B cells". Biocentury. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  48. ISBN 978-1-4391-0795-9
    . Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  49. ^ Roy, Amit (10 November 2009). "Chronicler of cancer, emperor of maladies". The Telegraph – Calcutta (Kolkata). Archived from the original on 14 November 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  50. ^ a b "The 2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Nonfiction". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  51. ^ "The Top 10 Everything of 2010". Time. 9 December 2010. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  52. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2010". The New York Times. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  53. ^ Sehgal, Parul. "The Emperor of All Maladies (Book Review)". Oprah.com. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  54. ^ a b "All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on 19 December 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  55. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (27 March 2015). "Review: In 'Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,' Battling an Opportunistic Killer". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  56. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee's Touching Cancer Docu Nominated at the Emmys". The Quint. 24 August 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  57. ^ Hall, Harriet (2017). "The Story of the Gene". Skeptical Inquirer. 41 (1). Committee for Skeptical Inquirer: 59–61.
  58. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  59. ^ a b DeSimone, Bailey (1 December 2017). "The Key Reporter – Siddhartha Mukherjee". www.keyreporter.org. The Phi Beta Kappa Society. The Key Reporter.
  60. PMC 7330526
    .
  61. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  62. ^ O'Sullivan, Suzanne (3 November 2022). "Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee review – the little lives within us". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  63. ^ a b c d Mukherjee, S. (2 May 2016). "Same but different". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  64. ISBN 978-1-4767-3352-4
    .
  65. ^ Shapin, Steven (25 May 2016). "The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee review – 'one of the most dangerous ideas in history'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  66. ^ Hornby, David (17 October 2017). "Epigenetics: past and present". The Biochemist Blog. Biochemical Society, London, UK. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  67. ^
    doi:10.1038/533295f
    .
  68. ^ a b Resnick, Brian (7 May 2016). "Why scientists are infuriated with a New Yorker article on epigenetics". Vox. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  69. S2CID 3748806
    .
  70. S2CID 206653898
    .
  71. PMID 28503201
    .
  72. PMID 28450736
    .
  73. ^ a b Ball, Phillip (7 June 2016). "The genetics debate has been derailed—by both sides". Prospect. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  74. PMID 27291929
    .
  75. ^ "The Power Of Genes, And The Line Between Biology And Destiny". NPR.org. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  76. ^ Ritchie, Stuart (28 May 2016). "How Siddhartha Mukherjee gets it wrong on IQ, sexuality and epigenetics". The Spectator. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  77. ^ Los Angeles Times Book Review Editorial Staff (2011). "2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners & Finalists". Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Archived from the original on 23 February 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  78. ^ "PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Winners". Pen America. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  79. ^ "Annual Cancer Leadership Awards Reception". Friends of Cancer Research. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  80. ^ "The 2011 TIME 100 Poll Results". Time. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  81. S2CID 54401744
    .
  82. ^ Farrington, Roger (25 April 2012). "The Associates of the Boston Public Library's "Literary Lights" Dinner". Wellesley Patch. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  83. ^ "Padma Awards Announced". Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 25 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  84. ^ "Shortlist for The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2016 unveiled". The Royal Society. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  85. TheGuardian.com
    . 20 September 2016.
  86. ^ "10 Best Books of 2016". The Washington Post. 17 November 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  87. ^ GrrlScientist (15 March 2017). "Wellcome Book Prize 2017 Shortlist Revealed". Forbes.
  88. ^ NUI (31 May 2018). "Conferring of NUI degrees in RCSI, Dublin – May 2018". National University of Ireland. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  89. ^ Mackovich, Ron (6 April 2018). "USC announces five honorary degree recipients for 2018 commencement". USC News. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  90. ^ "Siddhartha Mukherjee". Carnegie Corporation of New York. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  91. ^ 2023, American Library Association. Reference and User Services Association. 2023 Notable Books List Announced: Year's Best in Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry
  92. ^ "National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  93. ^ "Penn's 2024 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients Announced". almanac.upenn.edu. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  94. ^ Kazanjian, Dodie (11 May 2016). "Meet the Most Brilliant Couple in Town". Vogue.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siddhartha_Mukherjee&oldid=1297057746"