Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Department of Biotechnology, Government of India

Translational Biotechnology

Translational Centre

Team

Dayakar S, PhD

Saji George, M.Tech, PhD
Distinguished Scientist and National Chair, RGCB
Chief Executive Officer, BioNest

Saji George has joined RGCB as head of Translational centre after working about 30 years in various pharmaceutical industris in India. His last stint was with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad as Director in Business Development for fermentation based natural/recombinant biopharmaceutical products. His experience in other pharmaindustries incudes Nicholas Piramal, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Mumbai and Spic Phrma.Chennai.He was instrumental the technology development/transfer for many products like Sirolimua, Everolimus, Fidaxomycin, Daptomycin, Liraglutide, Teduglutideetc to India from various CRO's in Europe to India. He completed his PhD from Faculty of Technology, Anna University in Fermentation Technology for Industrial Enzyme production. His post doctoral training is on Catalytic Antibodies from UT Medical School, Texas, Houston. He has about 19 international publication and 3 US patents to his credit. He was consultant to various pharmaceutical companies like RajastanAntibiotcs, Calyx Pharma, Virchow Biotech etc.
sajigeorge@rgcb.res.in

Uma Subramanian Unni

Uma Subramanian Unni, PhD
Program Scientist, Kribs-Bionest

Medical Biochemist by training, her doctoral research was to evaluate the effect of lysine on protein turnover, skeletal muscle mass/function, Insulin sensitivity and stress. Stable isotope based human metabolic research; Deuterium dilution based body composition and breast milk intake studies for nutrition research and Hyperinsulinemic Euglycemic Clamp to measure Insulin sensitivity are her research areas. She developed a number of micronutrient assays on GC-MS and HPLC, has expertise is IRMS, FTIR and has set up quality assurance and proficiency testing for research laboratories. Post PhD, she served the WHO referral laboratory at Muscat, Oman as a Biochemist and later taught Biochemistry to Medical Graduates at Believers Church Medical College.
uma@rgcb.res.in

Pradipta Tokdar

Pradipta Tokdar, PhD
Program Scientist, Kribs-Bionest

As a Bioprocess professional, PradiptaTokdar has got 10 years of industrial experience. Presently, he is focusing on the development of strain and process for the high value products like Echinocandin B, Staurosporine, Liraglutide and L- methionine. Prior to this, he was associated with Aurobindo Pharma Limited, Hyderabad where he has developed the bioprocess for the commercially important Antibacterial molecules like. Pneumocandin B₀, Micafungin, Anidulafungin and other useful enzymes for API's like. Threonine Dehydratase, Lucine dehydrogenase, Glutamate dehydrogenase, Threonine aldolase, Invertase, Alcohol dehydrogenase, Transaminase etc. and scaled-up process till plant level. Before that, he was with Piramal Enterprises Ltd, Mumbai where he has developed the bioprocess for different NCE moleculesas well as one of the Active Cosmaceutical Ingredient for the formulation of Anti-Aging Cream "Lacto Calamine Reneu". He has got 10 publications in different peer reviewed journals.
pradiptatokdar@rgcb.res.in