Deepak Shukla facts for kids

Deepak Shukla was born in India and is now an American scientist. He is a virologist, which means he studies viruses, especially a group called herpesviruses.

Dr. Shukla helped find out how the HSV-1 virus gets into cells. He also showed how these entry points are linked to eye problems caused by HSV-1, like keratitis (an eye infection) and retinitis (another eye infection). He has written over 100 science papers and many book chapters about herpesviruses.

Early Life and School

Deepak Shukla was born in Varanasi, India. He went to school at Kendriya Vidyalaya BHU. Later, he earned his first college degree in chemistry from Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

He then got a master's degree in biochemistry, which is the study of chemicals in living things. After that, he moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). There, he earned his PhD in microbiology (the study of tiny living things) and immunology (the study of how the body fights off sickness). He finished his PhD in 1996. He then did more advanced training with scientist Patricia Spear in Chicago.

Family Life

Deepak Shukla is the youngest son of Kala Rani Shukla and Ram Chandra Shukla. He has six older brothers and sisters: Rekha, Pradeep, Dileep, Prakash, Rachana, and Anand. All of his siblings live in India. In 2007, Deepak Shukla became a citizen of the United States.

Discoveries and Awards

In 2001, Dr. Shukla started working at UIC as a professor who studies viruses. He works for two departments at UIC: the Department of Ophthalmology (eye care) and Visual Science, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Today, he is a special professor in Ophthalmology. He also leads the Ocular Virology Laboratory at UIC, where they study eye viruses.

Dr. Shukla has been a key part of many important discoveries about HSV-1. He helped find out how HSV-1 enters cells using special "doors" called receptors. He also found out how the virus uses a process similar to "eating" (phagocytosis) to get into eye cells.

His lab was the first to show how certain enzymes and molecules in the body help HSV-1 get out of cells and spread. Dr. Shukla has used his knowledge of how HSV-1 enters cells to find new medicines. These medicines can help protect against and treat HSV-1 infections in lab animals.

His work has earned him many awards and grants. These include an award from the American Herpes Foundation in 2001 for his research. He also received the Lew Wasserman Merit Award in 2009. Many organizations have given him money to support his research, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Eye Institute.

Selected Research Papers

Dr. Shukla has written many important papers about his research. Here are a few examples:

• "A novel role for 3-O-sulfated heparan Sulfate in herpes simplex virus 1 entry" (1999)
• "A novel role for phagocytosis-like uptake in herpes simplex virus entry" (2006)
• "Viral entry mechanisms: simplicity drives complexity" (2009)
• "Herpesviruses and heparan sulfate: an intimate relationship in aid of viral entry" (2001)
• "Anti-heparan sulfate peptides that block herpes simplex virus infection in vivo." (2011)
• "Heparanase is a host enzyme required for herpes simplex virus-1 release from cells." (2015)
• "Prophylactic, therapeutic and neutralizing effects of zinc oxide tetrapod structures against herpes simplex virus type-2 infection." (2012)