Upendranath Brahmachari

In 1898, he married Nani Bala Devi and raised a family with her.

He died on February 6, 1946, at the age of 72.

Upendranath Brahmachari was born on December 19, 1873 in Jamalpur, Bihar, to Nilmony Brahmachari, a physician in East Indian Railways, and his wife, Saurabh Sundari Devi.

He received his early education from the Eastern Railways Boys' High School, Jamalpur. Then he attended the Hooghly Mohsin College and obtained a Bachelor’s degree, with honors in Mathematics and Chemistry, in 1893.

Thereafter, he studied Medicine with Higher Chemistry and passed his Master’s degree from the Presidency College, Kolkata, in 1894.

Later, he enrolled at the University of Calcutta from where he earned his MD degree in 1902. In 1904, he earned PhD for his thesis on ‘Haemolysis’.

In 1899, he started his medical career by joining the Provincial Medical Service where he was appointed a teacher of Pathology and Materia Medica. In 1901, he became a physician in the Dacca Medical School.

In 1905, he became a teacher in Medicine and Physician at the Campbell Medical School, Kolkata. He served there for many years, carrying out most of his research work on Kala-azar and made his monumental discovery of Urea Stibamine.

In 1923, he took the position of Additional Physician in the Medical College Hospital. Around 1924, he founded the ‘Brahmachari Research Institute’ at his own residence in Kolkata.

In 1927, he retired as a physician from the government service. After retirement, he served as the Professor of Tropical Diseases at the Carmichael Medical College, Kolkata.

Later, he served as the Chairman of the Blood Transfusion Service of Bengal. He played a crucial role in establishing the world's second blood bank in Kolkata, in 1939.

He made outstanding contributions to medical science, particularly in the treatment of Kala-azar by discovering ‘Urea Stibamine’. It had no painful effects and was an effective substitute for the other antimony-containing compounds in the treatment of the disease.

He is also notably remembered for his pioneering work in the treatment of dermal leishmaniasis, malaria, the old Burdwan fever, quartan fever, blackwater fever, cerebrospinal meningitis, filariasis, leprosy and syphilis.