LEAF 2026 — Right Degree, Bright Future

Pharmaceutical scientist with 34+ years across academia and industrial R&D. Has led 350+ industry projects and 43 clinical studies, contributing to 200+ patents and 120+ peer-reviewed papers — and mentored 46 postgraduate scholars.

30+ years bridging industry and academia. Designs industry-relevant training at Biocon Academy; previously led roles at BiOZEEN and Merck Millipore in bioprocessing, filtration and biomonitoring. Patent holder and published author on science education.

Scientist-turned-TA leader with a PhD in Chemistry and postdoctoral research at Weill Cornell and Washington University. IIM Calcutta alumna with 10+ years across Pharma, Biopharma, MedTech and IT. Previously led Talent Acquisition at AstraZeneca, Baxter and Koch.

Oncology and healthcare-technology leader with 20+ years across clinical oncology, AI-driven healthcare, real-world evidence and precision medicine. Drives RWE strategy at 4baseCare, transforming clinical and genomic data into actionable oncology insights.

Represents a new wave of young Indian deep-tech founders betting big on novel industrial biotech to revolutionise how we manufacture proteins for affordable diagnostics and healthcare, sustainable food systems and resilient supply chains — good for people and the planet. Brings the strategic insight and scientific rigour needed to turn complex biotechnology into scalable industrial outcomes. As Co-Founder of Loopworm, he drives fundraising, business development, GTM & sales strategy, R&D strategy and new product development.

Structural biologist (CSIR-CCMB PhD) researching lipid biosynthesis enzymes and their role in cell signaling and evolution. Teaches Biochemistry, Structural & Synthetic Biology and Research Methodology to BSc/MSc and PhD students.

Biotechnology PhD and DAAD Fellow (Leibniz University, Hannover) with 9+ years of teaching and 5+ years of research expertise in genetics, molecular biology and research techniques. Former researcher at BISR (BIT Mesra), published author and mentor; recognized with multiple awards for oral and poster presentations at national and international conferences.

M.Sc. (Calcutta University), B.Ed. and NET-qualified academician with 11+ years specializing in Cell Biology, Genetics and Plant Biotechnology. Former college lecturer and UGC National Workshop instructor; published in MDPI Agriculture and Science and Culture on plant regeneration, morphogenesis and sustainable agriculture.

Dedicated Clinical Research Professional with hands-on experience in clinical research and clinical operations, grounded in GCP guidelines and regulatory requirements. As a trainer, designs and delivers practical, engaging sessions on site operations, protocol compliance and ethical practice — building confidence and competence in professionals entering the field.

Master's in Pharmacy with 4 years across pharmaceutical sciences, clinical research support, customer communication and drug-safety case processing. Hands-on with adverse event case evaluation, Argus case entry and verification, MedDRA coding and follow-up documentation. Currently supports Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Research learners at Biotecnika.

CSIR-NET qualified (2013); PhD in Biotechnology from ICT Mumbai (2019) with 9+ years of teaching experience and two first-author research papers. Biotecnika faculty since 2019 and R&D consultant in the food sector, focused on dehydration and novel processing of plant-based materials. Trained through Nexus Pre-incubation, Science of Pulse Processing and Python (Log2Base2) programs.

PhD in Biotechnology (SRM IST) with an interdisciplinary background spanning computational and experimental research. Expertise in molecular docking, MD simulations, structural bioinformatics, immunoinformatics and whole-genome analysis, with applied AI/ML for virtual screening, drug repurposing and protein–ligand interaction prediction — accelerating discovery against antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Proficient in Python (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib) and cheminformatics tools (RDKit, Open Babel, DeepChem). Published in Molecular Diversity, J. Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics and Current Microbiology; serves as a peer reviewer. Experienced educator across microbiology, molecular biology and AI/ML in life sciences, with multiple oral-presentation awards and the Tata Trust Scholarship for Women.

CRO Scientist & AI-ML Trainer at Biotecnika, training professionals in AI/ML for Computational Biology, NGS and multi-omics data analysis while contributing to contract research and industry-oriented projects. PhD in Bioinformatics (Lovely Professional University) specializing in Machine Learning and in-silico Drug Discovery, with prior scientific roles at the Bioinformatics Centre, CSIR–IMTECH, Chandigarh. Nearly a decade of experience across AI/ML model development for biological datasets, cheminformatics, protein sequence and structural analysis, database development, and Python/R bioinformatics workflows. 20+ peer-reviewed publications, 700+ citations, h-index of 10, plus book chapters in ML, drug discovery, metagenomics and omics. Peer reviewer for Bioinformatics & Computational Biology journals for 3+ years; passionate mentor building industry-ready skills in AI, ML and computational life sciences.