Our CEO

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENT

Achieved world-beating expression levels of HPV viral protein, and showed that it can be purified to yield useful product for clinical testing, in ways suitable for translation from the laboratory scale to manufacturing scale, his work trumped several years of effort at Colorado and  will immediately alter their methods based on his results.

The project atUniversity of Queensland,Australiawas in collaboration with theUniversityofColorado(Professor Robert Garcea). His role was to research better ways of expressing and purifying protein and then making such methods to enable a move from laboratory to manufacture, particularly viral vaccines for cervical cancer vaccine.

MEDICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY EXPOSURE 

  •  The Centre for Biomolecular Engineering, Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology, University of Queensland on “BIOENGINEERING OF VIRAL CAPSID PROTEIN FOR CANCER VACCINE MANUFACTURE”.
  • Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, in the field of Transformation with isolated plasmids and Competent Cells.
  • Microarray techniques at world-renowned Cephalosporin manufacturers Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, R&D Centre, Chennai.
  • AU-KBC Research Centre, Chennai, in the field of Drug Discovery and Development through Bioinformatics. (AnnaUniversity, India).

BUSINESS VENTURE

Have established Niche proteins Ltd; a biotechnology company specialized in producing recombinant proteins for use as quality control material in clinical diagnostic labs. Currently producing C-Reactive proteins for European and Middle East markets. He was awarded Student Entrepreneurship Merit Award 2010 and cash price of €4000 by Enterprise Ireland, Govt of Rep. of Ireland for starting-up this business.

PROJECTS COMPLETED 

  • Submitted a report on “Transformation with isolated plasmids and Competent Cells” to the division of Entomology, carried in laboratories of Indian Agricultural Research Institute,India.
  • Will be publishing a project paper on “ISOLATION OF UNIQUE MARKER FROM PIPER NIGRUM” completed at Natural Remedies, R&D centre,India, on the receipt of NMR structure and interpretation of the marker.
  • Worked part–time for eight months at Alia Organics, India, as a research assistant to the team involved in the research project on AIDS Control involving amino acids based immune booster trials for HIV+/AIDS. Also assisted in the study of extra cellular transcription factors, biostimulators, enhancer culture media and specialty amino acid derivative based on biologically active amino acid.
  • Worked on Telomerase based vaccine development for Cancer through Bioinformatics at AU-KBC Research Centre, Anna University, India.
  • Carried out a project at The Centre for Biomolecular Engineering, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Universityof Queenslandon “BIOENGINEERING OF VIRAL CAPSID PROTEIN FOR CANCER VACCINE MANUFACTURE”.

CURRENT PhD PROJECT

The current project deals with Prebiotic Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), derived from lactose that are fermented by specific colonic bacteria such as bifidobacteria. GOS are starting to command significant attention as a functional food ingredient due to its role in the improvement of the colonic environment. The principal objective of the current research was identification of a microbial strain capable of producing a novel β-galactosidase with properties optimally suited to the production of GOS. As a result of this project, the strain was identified, cloned and subsequently the selected β-galactosidase has been purified and characterized in detail.  The result has also been presented at Annual Conference of the Association of General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) 2009,Germany and Intune Conference 2009,University of Limerick,Ireland.

WELL VERSED IN

  • Stem Cell Research
  • Nanotechnology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Immunology & Oncology
  • Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

PRACTICAL SKILLS

  • Isolation of DNA, RNA, Enzymes, Plasmids
  • Electroelution of DNA and Protein
  • RT-PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
  • Reverse Phase HPLC
  • AKTA Explorer (GE Healthcare)
  • Bioanalyzer(Agilent Technologies)
  • SDS PAGE and ELISA

AREA OF INTEREST

Bioengineering based Drug Discovery, Designing and Delivery. Cancer Vaccines and Anti-Cancer drugs  

REFERENCES

Prof Anton Middelberg, Director, Centre for Biomolecular Engineering

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

University of Queensland,Queensland4072,Australia

Tel: 61-7-3346 4189 Fax: 61-7-3346 3189 Email: a.middelberg@uq.edu.au

Dr Lizhong He, Deputy Director, Centre for Biomolecular Engineering

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

University of Queensland,Queensland4072,Australia

Tel: 61-7-3346 3179 Fax: 61-7-3346 3189 Email: l.he@uq.edu.au

Dr Shane O Connell, Strand Leader/ Project Supervisor, Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre

Institute of Technology Tralee, Tralee, Co. Kerry,

Rep. ofIreland

Tel: +353-(0)66-7144188   E-mail: shane.oconnell@staff.ittralee.ie

Dr Michael Hall, Project Co-Supervisor,  Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre

Institute of Technology Tralee, Tralee, Co. Kerry,

Rep. ofIreland

Tel: +353-(0)66-7144168   E-mail: michael.hall@staff.ittralee.ie