Sharma, Rajendra Kumar (1942-)

Rajendra (Raj) K. Sharma was born on January 2, 1942, in Hathras, India, and came to Canada in 1976. At the universities of Manitoba and Calgary, he made several milestone discoveries in the area of signal transduction, particularly calmodulin-regulated systems in brain and cardiac muscles. In 1991, he joined the Department of Pathology in the College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and the Cancer Research Unit of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. Dr. Sharma is a dedicated scientist with an international reputation for conducting innovative research. He has discovered and purified more than a dozen new proteins, mostly related to the area of signal transduction, and characterized their properties. He demonstrated for the first time the role of the enzyme N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) in causing colorectal cancer. He has received over $2 million in grants and has trained numerous students and postdoctoral fellows. His extensive publication list includes 162 scientific papers, and he has arranged symposiums internationally. In recognition of his contribution to research and scholarly activities, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree at the University of Saskatchewan in 2004.

Svein Carlsen