Institute: Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, India
Biography
Gagandeep (Cherry) Kang is the Executive Director, Translational Health Science Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology from August 2016. The THSTI has a mission to conduct innovative translational research across disciplines to understand disease biology accelerate development of concepts into products and strategies for public health. AT THSTI, she is exploring the possibilities of establishing controlled human infection models for diseases relevant to India.
Prior to her appointment at THSTI, she was a Professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Over two decades, she built a research program that has conducted key studies to understand enteric infectious diseases in impoverished communities. Working in partnership with non-governmental organizations and the government, she has carried out phase I-III studies of rotaviral vaccines and provided laboratory support for vaccine development in India and for other developing countries. With the Indian Council for Medical Research and the World Health Organization, she has supported the establishment of networks of sentinel hospitals and laboratories that carry out surveillance for rotavirus disease in children and ancillary studies.
She chairs the Immunization Technical Advisory Group for the WHO’s South East Asian Region. She is an Independent Director of the Hilleman Laboratories, a partnership established to make affordable vaccines by Merck and the Wellcome Trust.
Key Publications