Who Is Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Wife?

Mukherjee’s lab, with the help of PureTech Health plc, has been investigating chimeric antigen receptor redirected T cells (CAR-T) therapy in a joint venture called Vor biographyPharma since 2016. 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. This provides an important new approach to managing acute myeloid leukemia.

Mukherjee’s 2016 book The Gene: An Intimate History provides a history of genetic research, but also delves into the personal genetic history of the author’s family, including mental illness. The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people’s health and attributes, but it also has a cautionary tone to not let genetic predispositions define fate, a mentality that led to the rise of eugenics in history and something he thinks lacks the nuance required to understand something as complex as human beings. The Gene was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2016, “the Nobel prize of science writing”. The book was also the recipient of the 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Society Book Award in Science.

In his 2016 article ‘Same but different’ in The New Yorker, Mukherjee attributed the most important genetic functions to epigenetic factors (such as histone modification and DNA methylation). Giving an analogy of his mother and her twin sister, he explains:

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.

Based on the book, Ken Burns made a PBS Television documentary film Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies in 2015, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.

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

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.

Mukherjee also wrongly stated that “classical Darwinian evolution is that genes do not retain an organism’s experiences in a permanently heritable manner… Darwin discredited that model [of Lamarck].” But Darwin had no idea of the gene—the concept of which was established only in the 20th century. Science writer Razib Khan noted this erroneous conception, and explained that “Darwin worked in the pre-genetic era… he himself was quite open to Lamarckianism in some cases.”

After completing school education in India, Mukherjee studied biology at Stanford University, obtained a D.Phil. from University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and an M.D. from Harvard University. He joined NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital / 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.

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. Two such chemicals – proteasome inhibitors and activin inhibitors – are under clinical trials. Mukerjee’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.

Mukherjee lives in New York and is married to artist Sarah Sze, winner of a MacArthur “Genius” grant and representative of the US to the 2013 Venice Biennale. They have two daughters, Leela and Aria.

In 2010, Simon & Schuster published his book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Bio details of Cancer detailing the evolution of diagnosis and treatment of human cancers from ancient Egypt to the latest developments in chemotherapy and targeted therapy. On 18 April 2011, the book won the annual Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction; 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.” It was listed in the “All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books” (the 100 most influential books of the last century) and the “Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2010” by Time in 2011. It was also listed in “The 10 Best Books of 2010” by The New York Times and “Top 10 Books of 2010” by O, The Oprah Magazine. In 2011, it was nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

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. The medical center is attached to the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

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. After graduation, he attended Harvard Medical School, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 2000. Between 2000 and 2003 he worked as a resident in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. From 2003 to 2006 he trained in oncology as a Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (under Harvard Medical School) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Siddhartha Mukherjee grew up to a Bengali family in New Delhi, India. His father, Sibeswar Mukherjee, was an executive with Mitsubishi, and his mother Chandana Mukherjee, was a former schoolteacher 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 in 1992, and completed his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in 1993.

Siddhartha Mukherjee (born 21 July 1970) is an Indian-American physician, biologist, oncologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Bio details of Cancer that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and Guardian First Book Award, among others. The book was listed in the “All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books” (the 100 most influential books of the last century) by Time magazine in 2011. His 2016 book The Gene: An Intimate History made it to #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, and was among The New York Times 100 best books of 2016, and a finalist for the Wellcome Trust Prize and the Royal Society Prize for Science Books.