Dr. Praveen Vemula is a scientist at Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), Bangalore. A key focus of Vemula’s bioengineering laboratory is developing platform technologies in the areas of biomaterials, drug delivery, and cell therapy to address unmet medical needs. In particular, Vemula and his team have been developing self-assembled hydrogels based biomaterials for clinical applications such as to extend the lifetime of transplanted organs/tissues and reduce the systemic toxicity in the treatment of inflammatory bowl disease/ulcerative colitis/Crohn’s diseases.
Praveen obtained masters (M.Sc., Org. Chem.) degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in Organic Chemistry (2005). Subsequently he carried out over two years of postdoctoral research at the City College of New York and over four years at Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in Harvard Medical School in affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2009, he has been selected as one of the thirteen fellows in the USA for the prestigious entrepreneur fellowship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he received exposure to entrepreneurial education and closely worked with the foundation to commercialize the biomedical technologies.
In addition to developing platform technologies, Praveen is seeking opportunities to translate them through active patenting and subsequently exploring the possibility to license them to biotech companies or by forming spin-off companies. His research was recognized/highlighted in the national and the international press and media including The New York Times, Newsweek, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, The Times of India, CNN, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Chemical & Engineering News, Scientific American, Materials Research Society, Materials Today, American Chemical Society, United Press International, Nanotechnology News, Nanowerk, Green Chemistry Network, National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health.
