Bibudhendra (Amu) Sarkar CM (born August 2, 1935) is a Canadian biochemist best known for his research on copper-histidine in human blood, leading to the first treatments for Menkes disease.

[2] During his studies in BHU he was a regular summer student in the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow where he was mentored by Manojit Mohan Dhar.

[2] Sarkar then travelled to the USA to do his graduate studies in biochemistry in the University of Southern California, under the supervision of Paul Saltman.

[2][5] In early 1964 Sarkar was presenting his PhD work at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) meeting in Chicago where Andrew Sass-Kortsak, a clinician specialist in Wilson’s disease at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada came to listen.

[2][6] Sass-Kortsak offered Sarkar a Staff Scientist’s position in the Genetic Metabolic Research Program with start-up funds and his own laboratory in a newly built wing in SickKids.

[6][41] Sarkar also helped make copper-histidine formulation for Menkes disease in other countries including NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, Md.

[19][20] Sarkar led a team of international scientists investigating naturally occurring arsenic and other toxic metals throughout South- and Southeast Asia.

[48][49][50] Discovery Canada Television produced an hour-long documentary focusing on Sarkar’s work on this devastating health crisis in Bangladesh.

They produced heat maps of arsenic and other toxic metals in Bangladesh and West Bengal (India) groundwater, identifying areas where contamination is of special concern.

[28][29] Their investigation was further extended to the neighboring country of Myanmar (Burma), which has a similar geology, and where they found high concentrations of many of the same toxic metals in groundwater.

[31] In addition, the team called for the WHO to re-evaluate its guidelines for many toxic substances in drinking water based on their health hazards.

[32] Sarkar’s team stressed that multiple metal contamination of groundwater is an issue of global concern, and the risks may be further magnified by climate change.

[36][37][38][39] He was a member of the committee to establish terminology relating to -omics and metals under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).