Anjali Lathwal

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, IIIT-Delhi

Dr. Anjali Lathwal completed her B.Tech and M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India. Exposure to biological science during her Master’s thesis project motivated her to pursue research in the field of biological sciences. She then did her Doctorate in Computational Biology at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, IIIT-Delhi, fully funded by the University Grants Commission, Government of India. During her Ph.D., she extensively worked towards advancing biomarker discovery and immunotherapeutics in cancer and other infectious diseases. Her areas of expertise include Applied Machine Learning; Monte-Carlo Simulations; Mathematical Modeling; Computer-aided Vaccine Design; Peptide-based Therapeutics; Cancer Immunotherapy; Biomarkers Discovery; Genomic Annotation & Instability; Survival Modeling; Drug Repurposing; Network Modeling; Database Design, Management, and Integration. Later, she joined NIH-National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, for her postdoctoral training and worked on the project of drug repurposing for effective treatment and management of Alzheimer’s and other age-related neurological disorders. She employed mechanism-based systems biology and network science principles using large-scale multi-omics and clinical data. She also gained experience in developing deep learning and network-based modes to identify disease-specific progression markers using longitudinal clinical data. She has published more than ten peer-reviewed publications in renowned international journals and book chapters as a co-author, and has done several independent consultancy projects. She is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network society and the recipient of the Research Excellence Award from the Institute of Scholars (InSc). Her research experience shows her substantial contribution to viral therapeutics, biomarker discovery, and computational biology.

Pawan Kumar Raghav

University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Department of Surgery

Dr. Pawan Kumar Raghav completed his MSc in Bioinformatics from Punjabi University Patiala; PG Diploma in Chemo-Informatics from Jamia Hamdard; MPhil in Bioinformatics from The Global Open University, Nagaland. He worked at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO), Delhi, India for Ph.D., and got degree in Life Sciences from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. During his Ph.D he designed molecules and evaluated their experimental applications through response modification that regulates stem cells proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. He also worked as Research Associate in INMAS, DRDO where he has worked for stem cell-based patents. Dr. Pawan Kumar Raghav is a recipient of Postdoctoral fellowship awarded by Department of Science and Technology, SERB, India. He has completed the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India’s project as leading Principal Investigator in Department of Computational Biology, IIIT Delhi. His research work included development of tools and databases using machine learning algorithms, and new scoring function parameterizations for use in docking, simulations, and complex network analysis. Later, he has joined as a Scientist ‘D’ in Stem Cell Facility, AIIMS, Delhi. As a scientist, he carried out stem cell informatics, current Good Manufacturing Practices, and tissue engineering experimental studies. Currently, he is working as a Research Employee in the School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California. He is developing novel approaches for investigating immune/inflammatory mechanisms of allograft injury and discovering new biomarkers and therapeutics in solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. He is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the ICMR Travel Award to deliver an oral talk in 11th world congress & expo on cell & stem cell research ORLANDO, the USA, Research Excellence Award from Institute of Scholars, best Research Award from Science Father, and invited to present the research proposal at BioMed X GmbH, Germany. He has published more than 40 publications, including international research articles, book chapters, books, and Indian intellectual property rights for patents. He also reviewed and guest edited special collections for several international journals and books.

Rajesh Kumar

National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Developmental Therapeutics Branch, MD, USA

Dr. Rajesh Kumar completed his M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Kurukshetra University in Kurukshetra, Haryana, India. Exposure to genomic science motivated him to explore the human genome via emerging computational techniques. Thus he enrolled himself in the Ph.D. program at the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India, in 2015. During his initial Ph.D. tenure, he designed and validated cell-penetrating peptides for effective tumor therapy. His research interests include immunotherapeutics for cancer and other infectious diseases; analysis of multi-omics data for biomarker identification; understanding genomic structural alterations in cancers; peptide-based therapeutics; designing epitope-based vaccines; and developing algorithms for clinical data analysis and interpretation using machine learning for precision medicine. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and contributed as an author to published books. He is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network society. He is the recipient of the CSIR-travel award for delivering the presentation at the Gordon Research Conference on Genomic Instability and Cancer in Ventura, California, USA, in 2020. He is a recipient of the Carl Storm International Fellowship award in 2020. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow at the Developmental Therapeutics Branch of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA. His research activities and broad experience show his significant contribution to computational biology.