Pallu Reddanna, Ph.D.

Prof. Reddanna, during his research career in the field of inflammation and cancer over 35 years, has published around 200 papers with citations over 10,000 and H index of 51 and guided 41 students for Ph. D. In recognition of his collaborations with leading Pharma and Biotech industries he received “Outstanding Contribution Award (Pharma)” from the Chemtech Foundation and “Outstanding Scientist Award for the Benefit of Industry” from Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI). He was the founder Director of the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Government of India. He played a key role in promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem in the University. He was one of the founder members of the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA), a non-profit organisation that promotes academy and industry interactions, career guidance and skill development activities and startup ecosystem across Asian countries.

Vivek Trivedi, B Pharm, MSc, Ph.D., MRSC, MAPS

Vivek is a formulation scientist with several years of experience in both industry and academia. He joined academia in 2010 after obtaining his Ph.D. in material processing and drug delivery. His primary research interests include solubility improvement of BCS II drugs and the non-invasive delivery of biomolecules. Vivek’s research strongly revolves around the use of green processing techniques, such as supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) to develop suitable strategies for drug delivery. For example, Vivek has been looking into the applications of scCO2 to manipulate the physical properties of drugs and excipients to prepare cyclodextrin-drug complexes, perform solvent-free coating, and obtain drug loading in organic and inorganic excipients. He developed a platform known as Solid Core Drug Delivery System (SCDDS) for the oral delivery of biomolecules to ensure the safe passage of the active to the lower intestine and provide sustained release. Vivek has also been working on the nasal delivery of small and large molecules via non-aqueous matrices to avoid issues related to aqueous sprays. One of his current industrial projects involves the development of nasal formulations for the nose-to-brain delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs.

Over the years Vivek has worked with various small and large pharmaceutical companies as well as attracted funding from the European Union, Royal Society, and Royal Society of Chemistry, etc to conduct research in the areas summarised above. He has published numerous scientific manuscripts in high-impact journals, and he regularly presents his work at conferences worldwide.

Neetu Singh, Ph.D.

Dr. Singh is Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Center for Advance Research, King George’s Medical University (KGMU). Dr. Singh received her Ph.D. and Post-Doc from Endocrinology Division, Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow. She was instrumental in creating Center for Advance Research at KGMU, which has high-end infrastructure related to molecular and cell biology.

She was selected for ‘Halifax Project (Getting to known cancer)’, among world's 300 renowned cancer researchers and physicians. Dr. Singh has been conferred with several awards, including the Women-Scientist (WOS-A), Fast Track Young-Scientist Fellowship Award and Early Career Research Award. She also awarded the accomplished Affymetrix Tumor Grant Profiling Award, USA, Terry Fox Foundation Fellowship. Her primary focus is on understanding the dynamics of adult and pediatric cancer transcriptomics in relation to diagnosis, transition from indolent to metastasis stages and development of therapeutics, using cutting edge long and short read technology. Her research has also included significant work in the field of metagenomics and 16srRNA profiling of chronic inflammation predisposition to cancer. Her extensive knowledge in coding and noncoding transcriptomics and data modeling through Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms has paved pathway for precision medicine in clinical settings. Dr. Singh was instrumental in writing several reviews on Hallmarks of Cancer. She has is author on more than 76 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals of high impact factor.

Dr. Vikas Shreekrishna Shirsath Ph.D.

Vikas Shreekrishna Shirsath is an Entrepreneurial, Scientific, and Passionate leader with 22 years of experience in delivering superior business results in Drug Discovery Innovation and Development space. He is a Medicinal chemist by training and has Drug Discovery contributions in Biotech as well as CRO environment in India. He has made significant contributions to science, operations, and business during his tenure in industry. He specialises in Lead discovery, early pre-clinical development, Route scouting, Process development, IND and intellectual property.

He has over 25 International publications and more than 110 granted national phase patents, numerous strategic data disclosures and scientific publications to his credit. One of his inventions, SUVN-502 (also known as Masupirdine) has recently entered Phase-III clinical trials for mild to moderate cognition disorders and Alzheimer’s.