Shanta Dutta

Shanta Dutta is an Indian medical researcher on Gastrointestinal diseases and currently the director of ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR-NICED). She has over 35 years of research experience on infectious Diseases especially enteric diseases. Topics of her research interest include prevention and control of acute and chronic diarrheal diseases, Antimicrobial resistance, Disease pathogenesis, Developing point of care diagnostics, enteric vaccines and alternative therapeutics, AI & Analytics. She has been elected as a Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology (FWAST); National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), and Fellow of National Academy of Medical Science (FAMS). In recognition to her immense contribution to the medical science she has been awarded by ICMR, IAAM (Indian Association of Applied Microbiologists), ISCA (Indian Science Congress Association), IPHA (Indian Public Health Association) etc.

Education
Shanta Dutta completed her MBBS in 1986 from the University of Calcutta. In 1992 she completed her MD studies focusing on Medical Microbiology from Mangalore University, Karnataka. In 2006, she obtained a Ph.D. in medical science from Kyushu University, Japan.

Career
Dr. Dutta joined Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR-NICED) on August 1994 as Senior Research Officer (Scientist C) and rose to the post of Scientist G on September 2014. On 12 July 2016 she has been selected as the Director & Scientist G at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata. She has published more than 350 original research articles, review articles in peer-reviewed high impact journals and several book chapters. She has four Patents to her credit. She has become a guide of Ph.D. fellows to complete their thesis dissertations and an examiner to evaluate Ph. D. thesis She is an active member of Research Advisory Committees (RACs) of various research organizations, member of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in cholera and typhoid subcommittees, member of WHO-Global Task Force on Cholera Control (WHO-GTFCC), member of WHO TRG (Technical Resource Group) for developing TPP (Targeted Product Profile) for typhoid and cholera Rapid diagnostic Tests (RDT) and Cholera Treatment Centre.

During COVID19 pandemic, she was instrumental to lead the activities and services of NICED with respect to the prompt diagnosis of suspected cases of COVID, undertaking training of the laboratory personnel of all Govt and NGO health facilities of West Bengal on RT PCR assay for prompt diagnosis of the disease, distribution of diagnostic kits to West Bengal and other neighboring states, maintaining QA/QC assay. She has spearheaded the research activities at NICED on the newly identified virus, encouraged to take part in the nation wide serosurvey, to validate the PCR kits and reagents, made in India. Under her leadership NICED has been awarded with ABP Ananda Shiksha Samman 2022 for spreading Education in Eastern India.

Personal life
On 30 June 2020, Shanta Dutta was tested positive with Coronavirus disease. She was also suffering from pneumonia at that time and was admitted to ICU of a private hospital. She recovered uncomplicated and was discharged from the hospital. She was again tested positive for the second time during Jan 2022. Her son is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, a scholar with admits among the likes of Harvard, MIT, and Wharton. Together they strive for the betterment of healthcare in the state.