Eyestem Research, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru
I am the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Eyestem Research, a clinical stage biotechnology start-up incubated at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bangalore. Eyestem focuses on untreatable disorders with an aim to develop novel, scalable and affordable cell and gene therapies for degenerative and inherited disorders of the eye and other tissues / organs. Recently, Eyestem received approval from the Central Drugs and Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct Phase 1/2a clinical trial for treating dry age-related macular degeneration using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells.
Before Eyestem, I was engaged as Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator with Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore. Between 2001-2010, I worked at the National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi; Reliance Life Sciences, Navi Mumbai and Stempeutics Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2014, I completed an Indo-US fellowship with Dr. Kapil Bharti, Scientific Director), National Eye Institute-NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
I was selected for the prestigious āInternational Award for Young Biomedical Scientistsā by Indian Council of Medical Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2013.
I have published 55 papers in international peer reviewed journals; have 8 patents to my credit and contributed for 9 book chapters.