Arnab Pain
| Arnab Pain | |
|---|---|
 Professor, Bioscience | |
| Born | West Bengal, India |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Indian |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| 🎓 Alma mater | |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Studies on Pathogenomics |
| 🏅 Awards |
|
Arnab Pain is a British-Indian genomicist and pathogen biologist whose research focuses on comparative and functional genomics of human and animal pathogens[1]. He is a Professor of and founding member[2] of the Biosciences program in the Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division[3] at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he was appointed as a member of the founding faculty in 2010 and established a research program in pathogen genomics.
Pain’s work centers on the genome biology, evolution, and host-pathogen interactions[4] of apicomplexan parasites, particularly malaria parasites (Plasmodium), as well as related pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii, Theileria, and Babesia[5]. His research has also extended to genomic epidemiology and population-based surveillance of bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Candida auris, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Dengue virus, and SARS-CoV-2, with applications in public health and infectious-disease control.
Biography
Arnab Pain received his doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge, where his early research focused on microbial pathogenesis in bacterial pathogens affecting cultivated mushrooms. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral research at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, studying the cell biology and virulence-associated phenotypes of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Following his postdoctoral work, Pain joined the Pathogen Sequencing Unit at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where he played a coordinating role in several large-scale genome and transcriptome sequencing projects involving malaria parasites and other apicomplexan pathogens of humans and animals. His work during this period contributed to early comparative genomic frameworks for understanding parasite evolution, host adaptation, and virulence.
In 2010, Pain joined the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as a member of its founding faculty, establishing a research program in pathogen genomics. His research group integrates high-throughput sequencing, comparative genomics, and functional genomics to study Host–pathogen interaction, with a primary focus on malaria parasites and related apicomplexans. In parallel, his work has expanded to include genomic epidemiology, Metagenomics, and pathogen surveillance, particularly in the context of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
Since 2015, Pain has held visiting and honorary professorial appointments at multiple international institutions, including Hokkaido University in Japan, the University of Oxford, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as the lead principal investigator of the COVID-19 pandemic Genomics MENA consortium, coordinating regional genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2[6]. He also serves as scientific advisor in Noor Diagnostics and Discovery advisory team[7] and sits on Executive Committee of Smart Health initiative[8] of KAUST. Besides he currently heads the Biosurveillance initiative under One Health initiative that works toward monitoring and combating communicable disease in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [9]
Notable research contributions from the KAUST Pathogen Genomics Laboratory
Some of the notable contribution of Arnab Pain in recent past includes:
Coordination of malaria development with host daily rhythms
In 2020, lab-led collaborative work reported that malaria parasites can synchronize intra-erythrocytic development with host rhythms, implicating a Serpentine receptor (SR10) in regulating developmental timing and rhythmic transcriptional programs[10].
Genomic resources for rodent malaria models
In 2021, his group helped generate genomic resources for the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium vinckei, reporting comparative genome analyses that support its use as an experimental model and describing evolutionary relationships across rodent malaria lineages[11].
SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance and host-response links
During the COVID-19 pandemic, his team sequenced hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 genomes sampled in Saudi Arabia and analyzed viral evolution and potential links to viral load and host responses and reported associations involving nucleocapsid mutations (including R203K/G204R) and clinical/host-response signals[12]. Follow-up work also examined inflammatory and transcriptomic signatures associated with these mutations in patient datasets and experimental systems[13].
Malaria parasite gene regulation and pathogenesis
Arnab's lab contributed towards understanding how Plasmodium falciparum coordinates gene expression programs that drive red-blood-cell infection and immune evasion. In 2023, Pain’s team and collaborators reported that the AP2-family DNA-binding protein PfAP2-P acts as a major regulator of blood-stage pathogenesis, linking transcriptional control to parasite development and host-cell remodeling[14].
Genomics of neglected human malaria species
In 2025, the lab reported approaches using selective whole-genome amplification (SWGA) to enable higher-coverage whole-genome sequencing of low-parasitemia, neglected human malaria parasites (including Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale), supporting population-genomic analyses in settings where parasite DNA is scarce[15].
Awards and honors
- Bidhan Krishi Ratna Award (2023), Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University, India
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), United Kingdom
- Distinguished Professor, Hokkaido University, Japan
- Honorary Professor, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
- Overseas Research Student (ORS) Award, United Kingdom
- Dharam Hinduja Cambridge Scholarship
- Gold Medal for first rank in Master’s degree, Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Selected bibliography
For detailed list of Arnab's contribution, visit his Google scholar profile.
- Pain A. et al. “The genome of the simian and human malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi.” Nature (2008).
- Pain A. et al. “Genome of the host-cell transforming parasite Theileria annulata compared with T. parva.” Science (2005).
- Subudhi A.K. et al. “PfAP2-P DNA-binding protein is a master regulator of parasite pathogenesis during malaria parasite blood stages.” Nature Microbiology (2023).
- Mourier T. et al. “Saudi Arabian SARS-CoV-2 genomes implicate a mutant nucleocapsid protein in modulating host interactions.” Nature Communications (2022).
- Zeeshan M. et al. “Plasmodium NEK1 coordinates MTOC organisation during rapid mitosis.” PLoS Biology (2024).
See also
- Pathogenomics
- Malaria
- Apicomplexa
- Public health genomics
- Metagenomics
- Infectious disease surveillance
References
- ↑ "Arnab Pain". Institute for Vaccine Research and Development(IVReD), Institute for Integrated Innovations. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "Arnab Pain". Trends in Microbiome and Digital One Health. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering". BESE. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ UKRI. "GtR". gtr.ukri.org. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "2026 Arnab Pain: Microbiology Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards". Research.com. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "'COVID-19 Genomics-MENA': towards molecular surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 genomes during the vaccination period within the Middle East and North Africa - Grants Awarded". Wellcome. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "Advisory Team - Noor Diagnostics and Discovery Meet our respected and dynamic team of advisors - NoorDx". Noor Diagnostics and Discovery. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "Smart Health". KAUST. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ "One Health". KAUST. Retrieved 2026-02-03.
- ↑ Subudhi, Amit K.; O’Donnell, Aidan J.; Ramaprasad, Abhinay; Abkallo, Hussein M.; Kaushik, Abhinav; Ansari, Hifzur R.; Abdel-Haleem, Alyaa M.; Ben Rached, Fathia; Kaneko, Osamu; Culleton, Richard; Reece, Sarah E.; Pain, Arnab (2020-06-02). "Malaria parasites regulate intra-erythrocytic development duration via serpentine receptor 10 to coordinate with host rhythms". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 2763. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16593-y. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 32488076 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Ramaprasad, Abhinay; Klaus, Severina; Douvropoulou, Olga; Culleton, Richard; Pain, Arnab (2021-04-23). "Plasmodium vinckei genomes provide insights into the pan-genome and evolution of rodent malaria parasites". BMC Biology. 19 (1): 69. doi:10.1186/s12915-021-00995-5. ISSN 1741-7007. PMC 8063448 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33888092 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Mourier, Tobias; Shuaib, Muhammad; Hala, Sharif; Mfarrej, Sara; Alofi, Fadwa; Naeem, Raeece; Alsomali, Afrah; Jorgensen, David; Subudhi, Amit Kumar; Ben Rached, Fathia; Guan, Qingtian; Salunke, Rahul P.; Ooi, Amanda; Esau, Luke; Douvropoulou, Olga (2022-02-01). "SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Saudi Arabia implicate nucleocapsid mutations in host response and increased viral load". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 601. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28287-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 8807822 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 35105893 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Shuaib, Muhammad; Adroub, Sabir; Mourier, Tobias; Mfarrej, Sara; Zhang, Huoming; Esau, Luke; Alsomali, Afrah; Alofi, Fadwa S.; Ahmad, Adeel Nazir; Shamsan, Abbas; Khogeer, Asim; Hashem, Anwar M.; Almontashiri, Naif A. M.; Hala, Sharif; Pain, Arnab (2023-07-21). "Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid 203K/204R mutations on the inflammatory immune response in COVID-19 severity". Genome Medicine. 15 (1): 54. doi:10.1186/s13073-023-01208-0. ISSN 1756-994X. PMC 10360309 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 37475040 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Subudhi, Amit Kumar; Green, Judith L.; Satyam, Rohit; Salunke, Rahul P.; Lenz, Todd; Shuaib, Muhammad; Isaioglou, Ioannis; Abel, Steven; Gupta, Mohit; Esau, Luke; Mourier, Tobias; Nugmanova, Raushan; Mfarrej, Sara; Shivapurkar, Rupali; Stead, Zenaida (2023-10-26). "DNA-binding protein PfAP2-P regulates parasite pathogenesis during malaria parasite blood stages". Nature Microbiology. 8 (11): 2154–2169. doi:10.1038/s41564-023-01497-6. ISSN 2058-5276. PMID 37884813 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Ben-Rached, Fathia; Subudhi, Amit Kumar; Li, Chang; Alawi, Mariah; Satyam, Rohit; Xu, Sui; Zhu, Guoding; Naeem, Raeece; Mfarrej, Sara; Liu, Di; Stead, Zenaida; Askonas, Caroline; Liu, Yaobao; Cao, Jun; Pain, Arnab (2025-02-07). "Leveraging genomic insights from the neglected malaria parasites P. malariae and P. ovale using selective whole genome amplification (SWGA) approach". BMC Genomics. 26 (1): 118. doi:10.1186/s12864-025-11292-8. ISSN 1471-2164. PMC 11804106 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 39920573 Check|pmid=value (help).
This article "Arnab Pain" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Arnab Pain. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
