Sushil K. Mahata PhD

Dr. Mahata is a Research Physiologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. After receiving his Ph.D. in comparative endocrinology at the University of Calcutta (India) in 1988, he moved to Hans Winkler’s laboratory at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) in 1990 for his postdoctoral studies, where he was exposed to the chromogranin/secretogranin family of proteins. After completion of his postdoctoral studies, he joined Daniel T. O’Connor’s group at the University of California, San Diego in 1993.

He is an acknowledged expert on Chromogranin/Secretogranin proteins and the peptides and, in addition, has a broad background in and knowledge of catecholamine/insulin synthesis, storage and release. He has published 200 original research articles, which are widely cited (>9000 citations) by his peers. He conceived the idea of a catecholamine release inhibitory domain in Chromogranin A (CgA) in 1995, discovered the domain in 1996, and coined the term catestatin (CST: human CgA352-372) in 1997. He was the lead author on reporting the discovery of CST. CST is now established as a pleotropic peptide: it reduces hypertension, provides cardio-protection, attenuates inflammation, promotes angiogenesis, and enhances lipid disposal.