Bhubaneswar: Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra, a senior scientist working at the Bhubaneswar-based 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 reached his residence, recovered his body and sent it to the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar for post-mortem.
Meanwhile, Dr Mishra’s wife told the media that the scientist succumbed to food poisoning and breathed his last at the Capital Hospital.
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. Dr Mishra’s research papers were published in several science journals.
Earlier, Dr Mishra was working as a faculty at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.