Our Team

Senthilkumar Natesan

Chief Executive Officer

MVSc, PhD, Post doc (Johns Hopkins Hospital), Assistant Professor (University of Maryland School of Medicine)

Dr. Natesan received his doctorate from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar after his bachelor in Veterinary medicine. He has completed his postdoctoral training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He served as an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine at University of Maryland in USA. He also held joint appointment as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Human Virology. Dr Natesan has extensive training in the field of cell biology and virology. He had extensive training and independent research on the human immune cells- T cells, NK cells, dendritic cells and Macrophages. He has also worked on HIV-1 and its interaction with human T cells and macrophages. During his study on human immune cells, he has discovered a novel phenomenon of T cells generation during the adult life. He also described a novel cell type called Nurse Macrophage and another cell called self-renewing monocytoid cell that behave like a stem cell. He has published more than forty research papers in the reputed journals and contributed to several book chapters.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +

Ashok Chauhan

Chief Scientific Officer

MSc, PhD, Postdoc (ICGEB, Italy; Karolinska institutet, Sweden), Assistant Professor (University of Kentucky, Johns Hopkins University), Associate Professor (University of South Carolina),

Dr. Chauhan is a dedicated scientist, specialized in gene therapy and molecular virology. He has completed his PhD from Postgraduate institute in medical research and edication at Chandigarh and then he pursued his initial training at Immunology Research Center, World Health Organization, Switzerland and then his postdoctoral fellowship trainings at International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Italy and Karolinska institutet, Sweden before moving to USA. He served as Assistant professor at University of Kentucky School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Later, he served as an Associate professor in the department of medicine at University of South Carolina in USA. He has worked in various reputed medical institutions and managed his own independent research projects with extramural research funding. He has developed various expression vectors and transgenic cells to study HIV and HIV proteins in in-vitro cell systems. He has also worked on gene transfer and siRNA delivery to brain and immune cells using cell penetrating peptides. He also experienced in vector biology and worked with several vectors including viral vectors such as lentiviral, adenoviral and AAV vectors. He developed novel gene delivery approaches to deliver and express genes inside the brain by overcoming the challenges posed by blood brain barrier. He has developed novel chimeric combinations of different peptides through genetic manipulation for the gene delivery. Lentiviral vectors are modified retroviruses that are commonly used as vectors for introducing CAR gene in to the T cells. His expertise on working with different vectors and introducing genes in to immune cells would certainly be helpful for developing the CAR T cell technology for treating cancers and other gene edited cell therapy technologies for treating genetic disorders. His research was also focused on understanding viral replication and neuropathogenesis of HIV and other viruses.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +

Chirag Desai

Chief Medical Oncologist

MD, DM, Medical Oncologist

Dr. Desai is one of the most dynamic oncologists in India with vast experience in oncology. He began his practice in 1992. He has also been a clinical research consultant since 1999. At present, he is involved with close to 20 phase-III clinical trials (national and international - multicenter). He has been involved in the treatment of all types of cancers - adult, pediatric, geriatric, solid organ as well hematological cancers. He is also one of the directors at the Medical Oncology Services at CBCC- Apollo Hospitals, Gandhinagar, a member of four ethics committees in Ahmedabad, a member of several professional organizations such as ASCO, ESMO, ISMPO, ICON, IMA, AMA, APA, and APG. He is the chairman of SOP review and approval committee for Indian Collaborative Oncology Network (ICON). His contribution to the field of clinical research, in particular, has been remarkable. He has participated in several institutional and multi centric clinical trials and has also attended several GCP and managerial workshops. He served as the national co-ordinator for oncology trials and then medical adviser for oncology program for the same CRO. He has been the principal investigator in about 24 trials and co-investigator in about nine international clinical trials. At present, he conducts GCP trainings for potential investigators and ethics committee members. He has authored several publications. He is also one of the founder members of the Indian Collaborative Oncology Network, European Society for Medical Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and several national medical bodies. He has delivered several lectures on oncology and clinical research.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +

Dr. Kishor Bhatia

Scientific Adviser

PhD, in Biochemistry from University of Mumbai and is Fellow of the Royal College of Pathology UK. He was a Post-Doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University and served as Research Assistant professor from 1985-89 at Georgetown University where he was involved with the cloning sequencing and expression analysis of PARP. He has extensive experience in basic and translational oncology research having handled international collaborative research with Oncologists in the US, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and South America. He has over 30 years of rich experience in the areas of teaching, basic research, molecular pathogenesis, in the study of pathogenetic mechanisms of lymphomas and infection associated cancers. He has extensive experience in setting up Research facilities and was the first Director of the Children’s Cancer Research Center of King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh.

Prior to joining CGI, Dr Bhatia served as Director of the AIDS Malignancy Program at the NCI, where he developed several large consortia for the study of cancers in people with HIV in low and middle Income countries. He was a tenured scientist at NCI and helped develop and lead research studies to understand the pathogenesis and epidemiology of Burkitt’s lymphomas. He has also worked as a member of the governing board of the International Network for Cancer Treatment Research in Brussels.

Published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in international journals. He has made over 100 research presentations at international conferences worldwide and is also currently on the faculty of Asian Institute of Public Health and an adjunct investigator with the NCI.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +

Dr. Periasamy Selvaraj

Scientific Adviser

PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Selvaraj is also a co-founder of Metaclipse Therapeutics Corporation, a biotech company focusing on developing personalized immunotherapy for metastatic cancer. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry from Christian Medical College, Vellore in India. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he also served as an Instructor in the Department of Pathology. He has published more than 90 research papers in national and international journals including Nature, Science, Cancer Research etc. He has been working in the field of immunotherapy for more than two decades and trained many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He is also an invited speaker in many Immunology and Cancer conferences. He has received many NIH grants and actively involved in cancer vaccine immunotherapy research and product development.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +

Dr. SaratDalai

Scientific Adviser

Dr. Dalai has finished his Ph.D. in Immunology from JNU and finished his postdoctoral fellowship at National Institute of Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in USA. He worked as a scientist at US military Malaria Vaccine Development program at Walter Reed Army Research Institute in USA. He is a passionate researcher in the field of Immunology, a passionate teacher, and a strong motivator for next generation of students, researchers, and entrepreneurs. He is currently heading the Institute of Science at Nirma University as Director. His research in immunology is focused on generation and maintenance of memory T cells for the development of successful vaccines with long lasting protective immunity. The major focus of his research is to understand the CD8 T cell responses to plasmodia liver stage infection. He is also working on developing alternative strategy for making effective vaccines which includes development of chimeric biomolecules for novel adjuvant and to treat cancer through immunotherapy.

• Follow on Faceboook
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Google +