Management

Dr. Balganesh has three decades of experience in antibacterial drug discovery. As the Head of Research at AstraZeneca, Bangalore, he led the unit to deliver AstraZeneca’s first anti-tuberculosis molecule for clinical development. Before taking up his current appointment at GangaGen, in his capacity as Distinguished Scientist, he mentored drug discovery programs in various Indian National Laboratories under the Government of India’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Dr. Balganesh’s research experience is in the area of infectious diseases. He led the diarrheal diseases and broad-spectrum anti-bacterial project teams at AstraZeneca, Bangalore. He then went on to lead the anti-tuberculosis program. He has more than 30 publications and 10 patents to his name.

Dr. Balganesh is trained as a Medical Microbiologist at the University of Calcutta. He gained his post-doctoral experience at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin. Dr. Balganesh has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala in recognition of his work in tuberculosis and malaria. He is on the review panel of drug discovery programs like the ‘Innovative Medicines Initiative’; a European Union program to seeking novel treatments for Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. He continues to guide research programs in several National Laboratories in India. He is also a mentor and reviewer of programs initiated by the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation in India.

Ms. Sriram has over 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical R&D, with hands-on knowledge of driving biologics from early research to human clinical trials. She joined GangaGen in 2001 and has held various leadership roles, helping to establish the R&D infrastructure at GangaGen and has built and led multidisciplinary teams towards development of therapeutic phages and phage-derived antibacterial proteins for human therapy.

Prior to joining GangaGen, Ms. Sriram gained extensive experience in chemistry, manufacturing and controls and regulatory requirements for Bio-therapeutics at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, where she was Head of Process Validation and Quality Control. Earlier in her career, she developed DNA-based diagnostics for cerebral malaria and researched anti-malarial compounds for in vitro and in vivo efficacy at Astra Research Center India (Astra Zeneca).

After completing her Master’s Degree in Clinical Biochemistry, she pursued a Master of Philosophy in Biotechnology from the University of Poona. She is the author of several scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. Ms. Sriram is an inventor on several patents related to GangaGen’s phage and phage-derived technology.

Aradhana Vipra is Head of Microbiology at GangaGen Biotechnologies Private Limited. She joined GangaGen in 2003, and leads the company’s Microbiology team.

Ms. Vipra has extensive experience in bacteriophage research, including characterization of bacteriophages for various Gram-positive and Gram-negative drug resistant bacteria and product development strategies for phage-based prophylactics. She is well-versed in clinical laboratory guidelines for in-vitro testing of new candidate drugs and acquainted with a range of in-vitro based assays.

Ms. Vipra holds a Master’s Degree in Microbiology from Department of Microbiology, Nagpur University, India. She has published in peer reviewed journals including Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Microbiology, BMC Microbiology, Veterinary Research Communications and phage related research articles in Diseases of Aquatic Microorganisms and Advances in Microbiology. She is an inventor on the patent filed for P128 activity on biofilm.

Mr. Sukumar Hariharan has over 18 years of experience in the Biotech research. Mr. Sukumar and his team have developed the manufacturing process for GangaGen’s lead phage products and bacteriophage-derived recombinant protein ectolysin, P128, the Company’s lead therapeutic candidate. He has extensive experience in the process development of therapeutic bacteriophages, phage derived antibacterial agents in bacterial expression system and in their manufacturing (cGMP) for preclinical and early clinical phases of drug development.

Prior to joining GangaGen in 2004, Mr. Sukumar was responsible for the fermentation process development of therapeutic proteins in yeast expression systems at Bigtec Private Limited, Bangalore.

Mr. Sukumar has a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. He received his M. Tech Degree in Biotechnology from the Anna University, Chennai, India.

Vivek Daniel Paul is a molecular biologist with more than 20 years of research experience in
discovery and development of novel non-traditional antibacterials to tackle AMR. His areas
of expertise include therapeutic Bacteriophages, Lysins and Bacteriocins. At GangaGen,
Vivek developed platforms for engineering bacteriophages as potential products for treating
drug-resistant bacteria including the highly drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. He was
also instrumental in establishing Ectolysin and Bacteriocins protein technology platforms for
developing novel narrow-spectrum, microbiome-preserving antibacterials to tackle ESKAPE
pathogens.

Vivek is highly experienced in the field of Molecular Biology, protein engineering and strain
engineering and has several patents in the field of phage ectolysins and novel bacteriocins,
and has published in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently the Principal Investigator for the
CARB-X funded project in the efforts to use GangaGen’s Bacteriocin platform, to develop
antibacterial proteins called klebicins as narrow-spectrum agents targeting multidrug-
resistant K. pneumoniae, including the carbapenem-resistant and ESBL-expressing K.
pneumoniae.

Dr Uma Chopra has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She leads the In vivo Biology team at GangaGen which is responsible for developing experimental animal models for evaluation of in vivo efficacy, PK studies and PKPD work. She is part of the CARB-X funded project team aimed at developing novel narrow spectrum antibacterial proteins targeting multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae.

Prior to joining GangaGen Dr Chopra has worked in the area of research and development for novel antibiotics for treatment of tuberculosis at AstraZeneca R&D, Bangalore. She has experience in the drug discovery field and has worked in various aspects of drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and toxicology.

Dr Chopra is a veterinarian by training and PhD in Veterinary Pharmacology from GSF Research Centre, Germany. She has publications in peer-reviewed journals.