Dr. Ramendra Pati Pandey was a FAPESP Post-Doctoral Fellow (from September 2015- January 2019), a very prestigious fellowship of Latin America at the Department of Medicine-InCor/HC-FMUSP, University of Sao Paulo, School of Medicine, Brazil. He was working on New therapies for Chagas disease: Using repurposing of drugs acting on the Cell invasion and Autophagy progression of host cells and Potentiation of drug effect using Biopolymeric nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Systems against Trypanosoma cruzi. He was a Research Associate (from September 2013-August 2015) at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad-Gurgaon Expressway, Faridabad Gurgaon, India. Where he and his group has identified Transcription factor Foxo1 is essential for IL-9 induction in T helper cells, and this work has been published in Nature Communications Journal. And, there was one patent under consideration on Therapeutic evaluation of Compound 1 for the possible treatment of typhoid. Submitted for USA Patent. (Application Number-(E-5/1022/2016). Prior to joining as a research scholar for his Ph. D., he got a fellowship of National Science Council of Taiwan to work at Chang Gung University for two years from March 2007 to March 2009, where he along with the Taiwan group was able to conclude that the Phenotype of Tolerized Auto reactive CD8+T Cells is Context-Dependent in murine model. He has written a book chapter on the Liver Transplantation during that time. He did his Doctorate Degree (2014) from University of Delhi and TACF (Tuberculosis Aerosol Challenge Facility) at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), New Delhi, India. During his PhD he has developed nanoparticles carrying two secretory proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis - CFP-10 and CFP-21 and evaluating their potential to invoke an immune response coupled with the oxidative stress when encapsulated in nanoparticles. He did his M.Sc. in Biotechnology (2006)- from the School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. He was an executive council member of the Indian Immunology Society (2014-2016).  He is an editorial board member of more than 10 journals, and Editor-In-Chief of Indian Journal of Hospital Infection. Awarded with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India Young Scientist Award (2010), Senior Research Fellowship from Indian Council of Medical Research ( 2010), Indian Immunology Society Young Scientist Award (2013), European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) Travel Award (2012) , British Society of Immunology Travel Award (2012) , Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia Oceania Travel Award ( 2012 and 2015) , American Association of Immunologists Travel Award (2013) , International Union of Immunological Societies Travel Award (2013),and, The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies Travel Award ( 2017). He has published more than 20 research articles and reviews in both the international and national journals. He is a member of various International and National Scientific Societies.

Currently one-third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in between 2002 and 2020, around one billion people are likely to be newly infected, over 150 million people would get sick and 36 million would die of tuberculosis. Malaria is one of the most important infectious diseases in the world, and it has been recognized as the most widespread infection in tropical and subtropical areas with high rate of morbidity and mortality. An estimated 3.3 billion people are at risk of malaria in the world, of which 1.2 billion are at high risk and 97 countries had ongoing malaria transmission. This really motivated me to take up the academic and research challenges in the field of immunology and to contribute towards academics and ongoing research in the concerned field. We have established some baseline experiments where we are challenging the mice with intra-peritoneal injection of some secreted purified M.tb. proteins-CFP-10 and CFP-21 proteins. When stimulated with the CFP 10 and CFP 21 proteins, there was up regulation of IFN-γ and down regulation of IL-4, indicating a Th1 bias in T cell response. Since CD4+ T cells are important for initial control of infection, M. tb culture filtrate proteins are known to induce preferentially a Th1 type of immune response. The higher levels of IFN-γ and low level of IL-4 indicate that we have been able to stimulate immune responses in a manner like natural infection. This is very encouraging as we will be able to understand the interactions among Cytokines in the immune response to mycobacterium infection, induction of long-lasting memory cell formation and that can induce high level cytokine producing cells. These early findings boost me to write a research proposal to the Department of Biotechnology, and Indian Council of Medical Research, India to get my research grant to carry out my research in infectious disease, specifically, tuberculosis and malaria. I am very much interested to avail a faculty position so that I can contribute more significantly in the research. I hope my application will be considered by the selection committee and will grant me an opportunity to work in immunology and infectious diseases so that my scientific career contributes directly to the humanity.

Email :  ramendra.pandey@gmail.com