Advisory Board Members

Professor. Ravi Nambiar is the chairman of IHETS. His vision is to transform IHETS into a Center of Excellence with special focus on immediate healthcare needs. He brings in more than 30 years of experience from research and educational sector. Professor. Nambiar has specialised in plant and microbial genetics and has been a member of various research organizations. Most recently he was a Professor of Genetics and Director of Postgraduate Studies, overseeing various academic and research excercise.

Dr. Nambiar is a member of various research organizations and a recipient of various research fellowship programs. He has been associated with various working committees with the Government of India and has delivered series of invited lectures at various conferences.



Professor Seyed E. Hasnain is a globally acclaimed scientist, institution builder, policy maker, and an administrator. He is a recipient of Padma Shri (Civilian Award), The Order of Merit from President of Germany, Humboldt Research Prize, Robert Koch Fellowship, Fellow of TWAS, Trieste and American Academy of Microbiology. He was the first Indian elected as a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences. He is internationally known for his work on DNA fingerprinting, on tuberculosis, Indian Basmati rice DNA Typing. He is a honorary Professor at IIT-Delhi, author of ~300 high impact publications and patents. He served as the first Director of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) and Vice-Chancellor of University of Hyderabad. Dr. Hasnain has also served in senior positions at IIT Delhi, Jamia Hamdard, National Institute of Immunology. He was conferred with the ICMR’s BR Ambedkar Award, G.D. Birla Award, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, FICCI Award, J.C. Bose National Fellow, Ranbaxy Research Award, Goyal Award, Bhasin Award. He is an elected Fellow of all the major Science Academies of India (FNA/FASc/FNASc), and a recipient of honorary Degrees from Universities in India and abroad. He is the 3rd Indian to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the Queen’s University, UK and has served as a Member of Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC-PM) of India and Member of Scientific Advisory Committee to the Union Cabinet. He was Chairman of Biotech Advisory Council, Govt of Andhra Pradesh for several years and a Member of Biotech Advisory Council of many other State Govts, Member of of Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Ministry of S&T, GoI; Governing Council, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Ministry of Health, GoI; Research Advisory Committee of AIIMS, New Delhi; he was Chairman of the Academic Committee of PGIMER, Chandigarh, and Member of the Institute Body and Governing Council of PGIMER, Member of Review Committees of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He served as Member of University Grants Commission (UGC); Governing Councils of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies-Shimla; IISc-Bangalore; IIM-Khozikode; IISERBhopal and several other institutions, policy-making bodies of Ministries of S&T, MHRD, Health, and Defence. He continues as a Member of Aga Khan Foundation National Committee, Board of Directors/Audit Committees/ Remuneration Committees of number of Companies; Executive Council of many Universities. Prof. Hasnain has travelled widely and has given invited talks at top Universities including Oxford, Cambridge (UK), Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Univ of California, Salk Inst (USA), Institute Pasteur (France), Max Planck Inst, Frei Univ, Koln Univ (Germany), NUS (Singapore), Univ of Canberra (Australia), Canada, China, Thailand, Brazil, Senegal, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, etc. As a Professor, JH-Institute of Molecular Medicine, Prof Hasnain leads a very large, well-funded and active group of researchers (Ph.D students, Post-Docs & Trainees) in the areas of Tuberculosis epidemiology, diagnosis, infection biology and drug repurposing.



Prof (Dr) Vinay Sheel Bansal, CEO of K-Life Solutions, Hyderabad, has 40 years of rich experience of the Academia and New Drug Discovery, both in in the USA and India. He has worked in Merck & Co., Ranbaxy/Diachii Sankyo and HMRI/Satyam, and is also Sr. Adviser/ Consultant to several Indian and US companies to provide intellectual in depth scientific knowledge and his vast connections across India. He is also Sr. Adjunct Professor at VIT University, Vellore, one of the top premier University in India. He has published > 60 scientific papers in peer reviewed highly cited International and National journals. His review article on " Beta cells rejuvenation in Pancreas" published 5 years ago, is still highly cited till today and getting invitation by various international journals to publish more papers/review articles. He is highly enthusiastic individual with hands-on teaching experience with positive attitude and in short span of time, he has contributed to the success of VIT University and Hylasco/Crl, Boston, USA. He has got a natural flair for assisting students in meeting their educational cum research goals and career aspirations. His ability for critical thinking while managing several professional and social causes at the same time is an asset for everyone. Besides, he takes pride in learning new things both scientifically as well as non-scientific aspects. As an astute professional offering of 40 years of rich & comprehensive experiences in achieving results in a highly competitive environment of the Drug Discovery where success rate is <5%. Right now, he is highly focused in creating an ecosystem of the talented scientists in Hyderabad to discover novel Cancer Drugs by using ancient Indian herbal anti-cancer plants and other valuable herbal products for the common poor Indians under the “Make in India” program by using the latest advance technologies. Dr Vinay Bansal is also devoting his valuable time to uplift the students of the VIT University, to create the future generation of bright scientists for India.



Dr.Domenico Lazzaro is an M.D. PhD, Pathologist with academic experience. He is the CSO of K-Life Solutions and also works as a freelance consultant in molecular pathology for major international groups of corporate decision makers and for private investment transactions organizations across Europe and the Americas . He was Professor of Cancer Ultrastructural Pathology at The University of” Tor Vergata “1984-86 (Rome -Italy) and recently (2011-2013) he was contract professor of immunopathology in the Department of Public Health 4th University of Rome “Foro Italico” (Rome-Italy). Dr. Lazzaro holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine& Molecular Pathology .Dr. Lazzaro established his experience in molecular biology working for almost 4 years (1989-1994) at the EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) headquarter Heidelberg, Germany. He spent long years working in the field of Molecular Biology and molecular pathology as part of the Merck Research Laboratories (MRL)/Merck&Co.
Dr. Lazzaro was leading a group of molecular pathology for “in vivo”drug efficacy study that was part of the Merck Oncology franchise worldwide for 16 years.
His latest appointment was as Clinical Pathology Director in Histalim CERBA Research in Montpellier France from 07/2017 to 05/2020


Dr. Kharbanda received his Ph.D in cell biology in 1986 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences[AIIMS], New Delhi. He joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in 1986 as a Research Fellow and undertook extensive research work in the area of oncology drug discovery and development. In 1991, he was promoted to Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School where he worked as a faculty member for 15 years. Dr. Kharbanda is a co-author on more than 180 papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and holds > 20 patents and patent applications in the area of oncology drug discovery. In 2000, he joined Ilex Oncology Inc., an oncology-driven pharmaceutical company, as Vice-President [head of R&D], where his responsibilities included development of novel drugs for cancer. Dr. Kharbanda was a member of the team which successfully advanced three oncology drug candidates to human clinical trials. Following the acquisition of Ilex Oncology by Genzyme Corporation, Dr. Kharbanda founded companies that include Genus Oncology, Linus Oncology and NanoProteagen. Dr. Kharbanda is currently working at Genus as the Chief Scientific Officer and his focused goal is to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of diverse types of carcinomas.



Dr. Kitambi is the research director at IHETS, Associated Scientist at Karolinska Institutet and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of K-Life Solutions. He brings in over 20+ years of experience in drug discover and translational research with expertise in both rodent and zebrafish models. He holds a Phd in Medical Sciences and has conducted research at Central Leather Research Institute (India), Harvard Medical School (U.S.A) and Karolinska Institutet (Sweden). Dr. Kitambi was nominated as a research fellow at Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research, MIT, USA and has led research teams as a faculty at Karolinska Institute and at IHETS where he has developed many products. He has been a co-founder or a consultant to various pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Dr. Kitambi has served as an editorial and review board of various national and international journals.



Dr. Radha Rangarajan is co-founder and CEO of Vitas Pharma. Dr. Rangarajan received her Bachelor's degree in Biology from Stanford University, Master of Science degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and her Ph.D. in Neurobiology/Genetics from Rockefeller University, New York. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health where she conducted research on the transmission of the malaria parasite.

Prior to Vitas, Dr. Rangarajan was a scientist in the Drug Discovery division of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories where she managed research programs in multiple therapeutic areas including, anti-infectives and metabolic disorders.

Dr. Rangarajan is a member of the American Society of Microbiology. She has published widely, has multiple patents filed and has presented her research at numerous international conferences. She is on the Guest Faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad.



Dr. Rajasekharan is Professor Emeritus at the School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad. He is an inorganic chemist with expertise in crystallography, spectroscopy and molecular magnetism. His group at the School of Chemistry has made contributions to research in coordination networks, magnetic exchange and polyhalide chemistry. Dr. Rajasekharan did his PhD from IIT Madras followed by further research at University of Zurich and University of Bern. He was a CNRS visiting scientist at the Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Toulouse.







Mr. Simon J Paul is a serial investor and entrepreneur based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been asociated with many startups both in India and Sweden. Mr. Paul has been associated with many government bodies around the world and is currently focusing on Swedish and European markets in the healthcare and energy sector.







Financial Advisor
Mrs. Srividya Seshadri
Mrs. Seshadri has done her graduation in commerce and post graduation in computer science. She is based in London, UK and brings in 20+ years of experience from banking and educational sector. Ms. Seshadri serves K-Life Solutions as a financial advisor.



Director
Mrs. Radha Padmanabhan
Mrs. Radha Padmanabhan is currently a joint director of this company and acts as an independent consultant. She has over 20 years of experience in private educational sector.