Dr. Manoj Kumar is a PhD in Veterinary Bacteriology and has worked for over 2 decades in Biotechnology and Microbiology research with a successful Industry career. Currently, he is working as Chief Scientific Officer of Hester Biosciences Limited, Ahmedabad, India and has served in past at different leadership positions in Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad, MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Labs, New Delhi and Serum Institute of India, Pune.

He is a Vaccine R&D Leader, a Microbiologist and a ONE HEALTH enthusiast with extensive experience in early- to late-stage R&D programs and technology transfers. He has worked on projects spanning academic labs to industry research labs, to development labs and on to manufacturing and quality control settings. He is a proven leader in GLP, GCLP and GMP settings of developing countries for antigen design, process, analytical, formulation, preclinical and clinical development of diverse vaccines and bio-therapeutic products. He is well-versed in scientific, CMC and regulatory requirements in India.  

His has contributed to R&D of several human and veterinary vaccines including live attenuated, inactivated, subunit, conjugate, VLP based, synthetic and recombinant bacterial and viral vaccines as well as various recombinant therapeutic products and diagnostic monoclonal antibodies.

Some of his key achievements are:

20 national & international awards and honors 18 Successful Technology Transfers (R&D to R&D; R&D to QC; R&D to Manufacturing) Investigator for 6 Pre-clinical toxicity studies Led 5 Clinical serology projects  5 Successful Grant proposals 18 Patent applications (several already granted in different countries) Publications: Editrial (1), Peer-Reviewed Research Papers (15), WHO TRS (1), WHO reprts as contributing scientist (3) Bok Chapters (2), Ppular articles (5), Published Abstracts (>30), Press releases (31) Scientific Leadership: Participated as member of 13 Advisory Committees, Presented 29 Invited Presentations/Lectures, Chaired/Co-Chaired 6 Meetings, Memberships of 10 scientific societies, Reviewer for 14 Scientific Journals, Member of Editorial Board of 4 journals, Has guided 1 PhD and >20 Master’s Degree students as industry co-guide