ILS scientist Sandip Mishra found dead at Bhubaneswar residence

Bhubaneswar: In a shocking incident, Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra, a senior scientist working at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), was found dead at his residence at Satyanagar in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

He is reported to have died by suicide.

On being informed, police recovered his body and sent it to the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar for post-mortem.

The scientist, who was working at Bhubaneswar based ILS, was acknowledged across the world for his discovery of tumour suppressor gene in breast cancer.

Dr Mishra is credited with developing the drug ‘Artemisinin’ from Estrogen Related Receptor beta (ERRβ) molecule and leaves and flowers of a sweet wormwood plant (botanical name – Artemisia annua) which reportedly treated breast cancer patients successfully.

He proved that the cancer cells migration and invasion can be restricted and controlled by Artemisinin in estrogen receptor positive (ER-positive) breast cancer cells. 

Dr Mishra’s research papers were published in several science journals.

Before joining ILS, Dr Mishra was working as a faculty at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

He was conferred with BJ Kennedy Distinguished Research Excellence Award in Dubai in recognition for his work on molecular oncology in 2022.