Dr. Kaustubh Bora is a physician scientist (Scientist-D) who leads the Division of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s Regional Medical Research Centre for the North East Region (RMRCNE) in Dibrugarh, Assam. By academic training, Dr. Bora is a medical biochemist and anthropologist. His main areas of interest are anemia and non-communicable diseases. He also has interests in laboratory medicine, molecular anthropology, population genetics, and public health nutrition.
Dr. Bora was born in the capital city of New Delhi. He spent his childhood and did his schooling in the tea town of Doom Dooma in Tinsukia district of Assam. He developed a keen interest in biochemistry and molecular biology during his medical studies (MBBS) in Assam Medical College & Hospital (AMCH). Later, this played a major role when he decided to undergo specialization training (MD) in Biochemistry, by forgoing relatively more sought-after and lucrative clinical subjects. During his MD training at Gauhati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH), he also got trained in various aspects of molecular biology at the State Biotech Hub (Assam) in the College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara. This was a formative phase that was crucial in shaping his worldview and perspectives in biomedical research. Thereafter, Dr. Bora worked in the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), Shillong, for a few years, where he was engaged in clinical diagnostics, academic teaching, and research. Later, as a full-time researcher, he moved to the ICMR-RMRCNE Dibrugarh, a premier biomedical research institute engaged in biomedical research on priority health issues of the eight North-Eastern states of India. In the course of his journey, Dr. Bora has also earned additional academic degrees in Anthropology (Master’s) and Public Health Nutrition (Postgraduate Diploma).
Dr. Bora has many recognitions to his credit. He had received two Gold medals, one Silver medal, and nine university-level academic awards during MBBS. During MD, his thesis was supported by the competitive DBT MD/MS Thesis award. Subsequently, he had successfully cleared the “CSIR-UGC (Life Sciences) JRF” examination in consecutive years with National rankings of 40th (fortieth) and 3rd (third). For the latter, he was shortlisted for the coveted “Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) Fellowship”. Additionally, he had successfully qualified for “ICMR-JRF (Biomedical sciences)” and “UGC-JRF (Anthropology)”. Dr. Bora had also received the “GATE (Life Sciences)” certification, occupying 7th rank nationally. He had also received a Gold Medal with Elite Tag under the National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) scheme of the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, for stellar performance in ‘Human Molecular Genetics’ and ‘Functional Genomics’ courses by IIT-Kanpur.
Dr. Bora has so far handled more than twelve research projects as Principal Investigator, with funding support from ICMR, DBT, DHR, and NHM. His research activities received attention and awards in various national and international forums, including the Health Research Conclave at India International Science Festival (IISF), Indian Myeloma Congress, conference of the Indian Association of Pathologists & Microbiologists, ICSSR-supported International Conference on Addiction among Youth. Dr. Bora is passionate about research on anaemia. His team utilizes a combination of various clinical, laboratory, field-based, and data-driven approaches to understand the etiopathology of anemia, particularly in relation to the unique context of northeast India. They are also attempting to generate actionable and policy-relevant evidence for programmatic utility to successfully combat the burden of anaemia in the region. Besides, Dr. Bora has worked on some important non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and dyslipidaemia. Currently, Dr. Bora and his team are also involved in a major initiative to develop a strategy for early case finding of chronic kidney disease in community-based settings. Dr. Bora has more than 35 research publications in various reputed national and international journals, including BMJ Global Health, The Lancet, and Nature Medicine. He has also contributed chapters to various prestigious books, including the API textbook of Medicine.
When not in the lab or working in the field, Dr. Bora enjoys travelling, spending time with his family, and listening to folk music. He also loves reading about mythology and history.
