Anand Anandkumar
CEO & MD
Anand AnandkumarCEO & MD
Dr. Anandkumar is a serial entrepreneur in biotechnology and semiconductor domains. Before Bugworks, he was co-founder and MD at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd, a company that pioneered the use of systems biology and semiconductor technologies in creating directed therapies in cancer care. Before Cellworks, Anand spent 18 years in the semiconductor industry, donning technical and global-executive roles in USA/EU/Japan/China and India. Anand is also a co-founder in Impres Healthcare, an incubator promoting innovation in biomedical sciences. He serves as a member of GARDP India advisory board, member of the Board of AMR Industry Alliance, Vice President of the India Biotech Association and a founding member of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).
Balasubramanian V
COO
Balasubramanian VCOO
Bala was previously Director, infection business unit at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd, where he led the discovery of new combinations for the treatment of tuberculosis. Prior to this, he spent two decades in infection research and anti-bacterial drug discovery at AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd and led the discovery of a clinical drug candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis. Bala served on the Board of AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd as Executive Director.
Shahul Hameed
CSO
Shahul HameedCSO
Shahul Hameed is an expert in medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences with more than 22 years of drug discovery and development experience in anti-infectives, anti-inflammatory and oncology drug discovery programs. Previously a team Leader at AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd., where he gained international exposure in structure-based drug design, structure activity (property) relationship (SAR/ SPR), and drug discovery. He has led many lead generation and lead optimization projects. He has progressed many chemical series from early hit identification stages to pre-clinical development candidates, combating several challenges such as potency, cell entry and target engagement, safety, and DMPK in parallel, while simultaneously securing intellectual property. Currently, he is leading drug discovery efforts at Bugworks. He has been primary inventor of two clinical candidates (MMV253 & BWC0977), co-inventor of TBA-7371 (anti-TB clinical candidate) and published 25 scientific research papers and twelve patents including eight granted patents to his credits. He received his doctoral degree in Medicinal Chemistry from BITS Pilani, India.
Dr. John F. Tomayko
CMO
Santanu Datta
Mentor
Santanu DattaMentor
Santanu was previously Vice President, Drug Discovery and Industrial Biotechnology at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd where he led the building of the in-silico platform for E.coli and M.tuberculosis and its experimental validation. Prior to this, he was the principal research scientist in AstraZeneca India, where he spent more than 2 decades working in Infectious diseases, with a focus on Malaria and MTB.
Vasan Sambandamurthy
Senior Vice President - Global Strategy
Vasan SambandamurthySenior Vice President - Global Strategy
Vasan brings 20+ years of professional experience in vaccine and drug development at Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Biocon. At these organisations, he provided strategic direction, and orchestrated major business operations to develop affordable medicines across oncology, diabetes, infectious diseases and inflammation. Most recently, he was the Chief Executive Officer of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a global funding agency promoting basic, biomedical and clinical research across India. He has 50+ publications in peer-reviewed international journals and co-inventor on 4 patents.
Vasanthi Ramachandran
Vice President - Collaborations
Vasanthi RamachandranVice President - Collaborations
Vasanthi Ramachandran, a microbiologist by training was previously a Team Lead at AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd. She spent over two decades working on Infectious diseases, with a focus initially on Diarrheal diseases, anti-bacterial drug discovery and then Tuberculosis. Vasanthi led efforts in hit to lead programs, cell-based screens, developing microbiology protocols and whole cell-based target-specific mechanism of action assays. She received her doctoral degree in Microbiology and Cell biology from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and has more than 30 scientific research papers to her credit.
Nainesh
Vice President - Biosciences
Anand Anandkumar
Co-Founder & Director
Anand AnandkumarCEO & MD
Dr. Anandkumar is a serial entrepreneur in biotechnology and semiconductor domains. Before Bugworks, he was co-founder and MD at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd, a company that pioneered the use of systems biology and semiconductor technologies in creating directed therapies in cancer care. Before Cellworks, Anand spent 18 years in the semiconductor industry, donning technical and global-executive roles in USA/EU/Japan/China and India. Anand is also a co-founder in Impres Healthcare, an incubator promoting innovation in biomedical sciences. He serves as a member of GARDP India advisory board, member of the Board of AMR Industry Alliance, Vice President of the India Biotech Association and a founding member of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).
Santanu Datta
Co-Founder & Director
Santanu DattaCSO
Santanu was previously Vice President, Drug Discovery and Industrial Biotechnology at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd where he led the building of the in-silico platform for E.coli and M. tuberculosis and its experimental validation. Prior to this, he was the Principal Research Scientist in AstraZeneca India, where he spent more than 2 decades working in Infectious diseases, with a focus on Malaria and MTB.
Balasubramanian V
Co-Founder & Director
Balasubramanian VCOO
Bala was previously Director, Infection Business Unit at Cellworks Research India Pvt. Ltd, where he led the discovery of new combinations for the treatment of tuberculosis. Prior to this, he spent two decades in infection research and anti-bacterial drug discovery at AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd and led the discovery of a clinical drug candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis. Bala served on the Board of AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd as Executive Director.
Atsushi Usami
Director
Atsushi UsamiDirector
Atsushi Usami joined UTEC in October 2013. He focuses on seed/early stage life science investments: biotech, regenerative medicine and medical devices. He worked as a strategy consultant at Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI), serving pharmaceutical, medical device and other manufacturing companies across a range of areas including mid- to long-term management planning and new business development. He also engaged in providing consulting services to government agencies in the fields of international standardization strategy and industry-academia collaboration. Prior to joining MRI, he studied pharmacology and neuroscience and received a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Tokyo. He won several awards for his research: the 21st High Technology Award by FujiSankei Business i (2007), the Young Investigator Award at the Drug Discovery and Medical Pharmacology Symposium (2010) and the best presentation award at the University of Tokyo Life Science Symposium (2011).
Tejasvi Ravi
Director
Tejasvi RaviDirector
Tejasvi Ravi is a healthcare professional with over a decade of experience in healthcare working in strategy, operations and investing across various segments of healthcare including providers, pharmaceuticals, med tech and health policy. She currently leads investments in healthcare for Lightrock India and is also a Fellow with the Lancet Commission on Reimagining Healthcare for India. Prior to this she led the CEO’s office at Medanta Hospital and was a Senior Manager with Bain and company, India in the healthcare practice. Tejasvi has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Bangalore and a Bachelor in Commerce from Stella Maris, Madras University.
Abraham Van Vyk
Observer
Abraham Van VykObserver
Abraham currently manages the TCD Group of companies which includes a Contract Research Organization, Health Economics and Outcomes Research business and a Software Development business. He is also a General Partner in a boutique investment firm, focussing in Biotechnology, Medical Device and Technology. Abraham holds a Bachelors of Science In Medical Sciences and a Bachelors of Science in Cellular Biology from the University of Pretoria and a MBA from the University of South Africa. Abraham is passionate about learning & innovation and excited about entrepreneurs brave enough to venture. His experience in life sciences has caused him to gravitate towards opportunities and individuals with exciting visions and clear strategies. He has had the privilege of being involved in R&D in search of solutions for the most daunting challenges, with the aim to maximize learning.
Kiran Mysore
Observer
Kiran MysoreObserver
Kiran Mysore was the head of India Operations at Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support (DTVS) Japan. He supported over 50 deep-tech Asian startups by connecting them with Japanese corporations and also worked closely with METI Japan, to lead a project called CEATEC IoT Acceleration for Asian startups. Prior to that, he co-founded a student-led social enterprise named ‘Kriya’. Kiran has been selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by Stanford ASES (USA), St. Gallen Symposium (Switzerland) and Yenching Academy (China). Kiran graduated with a Master’s in Technology Management from The University of Tokyo in 2016. At UTokyo, his specialization was Deep Learning and his research paper was published in PICMET 2017.
Pranav Pai
Observer
Pranav PaiObserver
Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital – an early-stage venture capital fund that is based in Bangalore, India. As part of the 3one4 team, Pranav is involved with the startup ecosystem in India and leads the partnerships and co-investments in the San Francisco Bay-Area as well. Pranav focuses on the integration of technology and design to build products that consistently deliver important value propositions at scale. His diverse experience influences the context that is applied to decision-making, enabling him to solve problems strategically and efficiently, and to identify and work with the best people. Previously, Pranav was the Sr. Product Manager at EdCast, an ed-tech startup in the Bay Area. He graduated with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Pranav is a volunteer on the advisory boards and steering committees of non-profits such Code For India and The Archive of Indian Music.
Takashi Moriguchi
Observer
Takashi MoriguchiObserver
Principal Global Brain (GB). Prior to joining GB, Takashi worked for Kao and Deloitte consulting. He started his career as a biological researcher and was engaged in dermatology research in partnership with academic institutions. At Deloitte Consulting, he led a project to develop and implement a strategic plan for life science and healthcare companies
Dr. George Drusano
MD
Dr. George DrusanoMD
Director, Institute for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Florida, USA. Global leader in anti-infective PK/PD and antimicrobial resistance
Dr. William Hope
FRACP, FRCPA, PhD
Dr. William HopeFRACP, FRCPA, PhD
Professor of Therapeutics and Infectious Diseases Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology. University of Liverpool, UK
Dr. Satoshi Murakami
PhD
Dr. Satoshi MurakamiPhD
Professor, Department of Life Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Structural Biology, Protein crystallography expert
Renu Swarup
PhD
Dr. Aleksandar Danilovski
PhD
Dr. Aleksandar DanilovskiPhD
Dr. Danilovski currently leads global R&D and regulatory affairs at Xellia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused entirely on anti-infective treatments against serious and life-threatening infections. Experiences include serving as head of European R&D for Barr Laboratories (USA), head of vertical integration and head of chemistry for Pliva Pharmaceuticals (Croatia). A world-renowned expert in the CMC area, he is currently a member of the Scientific selection board of Novo Holdings – REPAIR Impact Fund (Denmark).
Dr. Manmeet Singh Ahluwalia
MD
Michail Sitkovsky
PhD
Heather Maecker
PhD
Bob Clay
Regulatory Science
Bob ClayRegulatory Science
Bob is a leader in drug development and regulatory science with a track record of achievement in delivery regulatory approvals across a diverse range of therapy areas, Bob Clay established Highbury Regulatory Science consulting in 2014. He provides consulting support to small and m id-size growing biotech companies on regulatory and development strategies across a range of therapy areas and regions. A strategic thinker with an understanding of the broad range of public policy and business issues affecting healthcare and drug development, he has held senior positions in regulatory affairs and has a versatile experience of building external partnerships and internal change management
Claire Sadler
Toxicology
Claire SadlerToxicology
Claire has worked in the industry for over 10 years and has been at the forefront of discovery toxicology in both the pharmaceutical and agrichemical industry. Her expertise includes design and implementation of bespoke preclinical safety packages to identify the safety hazards, assess the safety risks and develop risk mitigation strategies, incorporating in silico, in vitro and in vivo experiments, from target identification through to development.
Shampa Das
PK/PD
Shampa DasPK/PD
Shampa is a senior Lecturer in the antimicrobial pharmacodynamics and therapeutics group. An experienced Clinical Pharmacology Scientist with 17 years’ experience with expertise in using PK/PD for developing clinical pharmacology and dose strategies. She hold a BSc in Biochemistry and Physiology from the University of Sheffield in 1995 and a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1999. Following a post-doc at St Mary’s Hospital, University of Manchester, she joined AstraZeneca and worked in various roles in biopharmaceutics, DMPK, clinical pharmacokinetics and clinical pharmacology science. During her time as Clinical Pharmacology Leader and then as Director of Clinical Pharmacology at the Antibiotic Business Unit, she designed and lead the clinical pharmacology strategy for several early and late stage antibiotics.
Kripa Jalapathy
Intellectual Property
Kripa JalapathyIntellectual Property
Kripa is a Registered Indian Patent Agent with an IP experience of about 13 years. Kripa received her PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), New York, USA following which she had a brief stint as a post-doctoral researcher at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She later pursued IP law from NUS, Singapore while working as a Patent Attorney Trainee at the UK based firm Marks and Clerk, Singapore. She currently consults for academia and several biotech start-ups to formulate strategies on translating basic science discoveries into products. Her consultation begins at the stage of idea inception, building product differentiation, carving out niche IP space to life cycle management
Abhijeeth Chandrasekaran
Medical
Abhijeeth ChandrasekaranMedical
Abhijeeth Chandrasekaran, a key member of RxMD’s drug development team for over a decade, is an experienced physician and licensed pathologist. At RxMD, Abhijeeth has helped design and conduct phase 1 to 3 studies across therapeutic domains for mid-size and big (global top 5) pharmaceuticals. He has successfully led projects in varied environments amongst global stakeholders and has comprehensive experience in delivering high quality output under tight timelines. Abhijeeth’s development experience has included work on cutting edge projects in gene and cell therapy, and due diligence of over 40 candidate new molecular entities. As a member of RxMD’s client team, Abhijeeth has also made significant contributions in drug safety projects.Prior to RxMD, Abhijeeth was Registrar – Pathology, at the Harkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital and Research Center, a leading hospital in Mumbai. India. Abhijeeth holds a degree in medicine from the Stanley Medical College, Chennai, India.
Harikrishna Tumma
CMC
Harikrishna TummaCMC
Vast process development and manufacturing experience around 30 years on small molecule APIs and key intermediates from Indian generic company (LUPIN), multinational NCEs company (AstraZeneca) and multinational CDMO company (PHARMARON). Process development and manufacturing of APIs in the GMP environment to cater an early phase clinical studies to commercial manufacturing in tonnage scale to meet worldwide patient needs.
Sudhanshu Karmarkar
Finance
Sudhanshu KarmarkarFinance
Sudhanshu Rameshrao Karmarkar is a Chartered Accountant based in Bengaluru, India. Sudhanshu has two bachelor degrees in commerce and law, both from Karnataka University. The core expertise he brings is in compliance and finance/tax. His experience as a senior audit manager at M/s R. Sundararaman and Co, CA, Chennai, and at KPMG, US tax returns team embellished his US/International taxation skills. He runs his firm, SRK & Associates, in Bangalore with a comprehensive range of services from audit, taxation, compliance to business valuation and capital management. Sudhanshu began his practice in the name of “SRK & Associates” Chartered Accountants Bengaluru in 2006. His areas of specialisation include Financial Accounting and Compliance, Direct tax laws, Indirect Tax Laws, Corporate law, Foreign Exchange Management Act, Statutory audits, Internal audits, Special audits, Bank audits, Transfer Pricing and cross-border finance/compliance matters. He also has expertise in providing various Management consultancy services in the areas of Setting up of Business entities from incorporation and obtaining various statutory registrations required under numerous laws, providing advisory services in Capital management, Business valuations, Transfer pricing studies, Due diligence, setting up of internal controls, internal/external financial reporting and liaison with various third party consultants/statutory auditors/statutory government officials etc.
Stephen Hatfield
Oncology
Mukund M A
HR
Mukund M AHR
HR professional with a background in life sciences experience spanning research, product development, and sales & marketing in pharma & CRO industries, and ICF “PCC” certified in coaching (mentor-coach).
Pradeep Fernandez
Operations
Pradeep FernandezOperations
Pradeep currently advises on Strategy and Business Development for Bugworks Research. Prior to this, he was CEO and Co-Founder of Netto Logic, a company focused on customer engagement for small business. Pradeep was the President and co-founder of Cellworks Group, Inc, before setting up Netto Logic. Prior to joining Cellworks, Pradeep was Vice President and General Manager of Synthesis Solutions at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) following its very successful acquisition of Get2Chip in 2003. Before founding Get2Chip, Pradeep was part of the executive team of TriQuest Design Automation, which was acquired by Summit Designs (MENT). Pradeep also co-founded CyberX, a company focused on development of highly integrated smart ethernet switches. Earlier, Pradeep spent several years at Synopsys and LSI Logic, where he started his career. Pradeep has an MSEE and BSCS/EE. He has multiple patents in Cancer, Immunology, Systems Biology, EDA and many technical publications to his credit in the EDA, DSP, Communication and Parallel Processing areas. He is also an advisor and investor in several early stage companies.
Aaron Dane
Biostatistics
Aaron DaneBiostatistics
A statistician with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across all phases of drug development and multiple therapeutic areas. He has extensive experience interacting with worldwide regulatory agencies and working on strategic development options for projects involving optimal design and risk assessment. He has acted as an independent statistician for several IDMCs across various disease areas
Patricia Bradford
Clinical Microbiology
Patricia BradfordClinical Microbiology
Patricia A. Bradford owns Antimicrobial Development Specialists LLC, a consulting company that focuses on the late-stage development of antibiotics. She was previously responsible for microbiology support at AstraZeneca, where she contributed to the successful development and approval of ceftazidime-avibactam. Before joining AstraZeneca, Patricia worked in antibiotic research for Novartis, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Lederle Laboratories. At Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, she worked on several antibiotic projects and was instrumental in the team that wrote the dossier to register and approve tigecycline. She was also heavily involved in the studies for several supplemental new drug applications (sNDA) for piperacillin-tazobactam.
Keith Rodvald
Clinical Development
Keith RodvaldClinical Development
Dr. Rodvold is a Professor of Pharmacy in Medicine at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Rodvold conducts research in the area of clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anti-infective agents, with a focus on drug penetration and disposition in special populations. The American College of Clinical Pharmacy presented Dr. Rodvold with the 2003 Russell R. Miller Award in recognition of his sustained and outstanding contributions to the literature of clinical pharmacy. Dr. Rodvold is a former member of the Anti-Infective Drug Advisory Committee and Pediatric Drug Advisory Subcommittee for the Food and Drug Administration.
Our Team
Harish
Director - DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology
Biswanath
Director - Oncology
Leela
Director - Business Development and Global Alliances
Ranga
Associate Director - Chemistry
Shashikala
Associate Director - Oncology
Sambasiva
Principal Scientist - DMPK
Nishanth
Principal Scientist - Oncology
Sreevalli
Principal Scientist - Cell Biology
Radha
Principal Scientist - Biochemistry
Sreenath
Assistant Director – IT & Business Development
Venugopal
Senior Manager - Clinical Operations
Latha
Senior Manager - HR & Admin
Suryanarayanan
Senior Research Scientist
Mehak
Senior Research Scientist
Rajesh
Senior Research Scientist
Sonali
Senior Research Scientist
Sudipta
Research Scientist
Dhanashree
Research Scientist
Swetha
Research Scientist
Sutanuka
Research Scientist
Rashmi
Associate Research Scientist
Debosmita
Associate Research Scientist
Biplab
Senior Laboratory Technician
Bhavana
Lab Technician
Maitrayee
Assistant Manager - HR & Admin
News & Announcements
Bugworks and GARDP join forces to accelerate development of a novel antibiotic to treat serious bacterial infections.
July 28, 2023 Published in GARDP
An engaging and informative podcast titled “What can we do to stop superbugs?” by Dr Anand Anandkumar, CEO with Alisha Wainwright onbehalf of Wellcome Trust.
June 28, 2023 Published in Wellcome Trust
Dr Santanu Datta and Vasan Sambandamurthy from Bugworks have contributed a chapter titled “Bugworks is a beacon of hope in the discovery of novel antibacterial agents” in the book “No Option: The Hidden Crisis and Hope for AMR“ presented by the AMR Declaration Trust.
June 22, 2023 Published in book by AMR DECLARATION TRUST
An article by Leela Maitreyi, Director, “Antimicrobial Resistance And Its Impact On Public Health”.
June 09, 2023 Published in Indiatimes
Our Science
