Dr. Michael D’silva

Affiliation : Lead Investigator, Biocon Bristol Myers Squibb Research Center (BBRC), Syngene International Limited, Bangalore

Title of the Talk/Lab :Role of Flow Cytometry in Drug Discovery

Michael D’silva, Ph.D., is a Lead Investigator at the Biocon Bristol Myers Squibb Research Center (BBRC) within Syngene International Limited, Bangalore. As part of the Translational Medicine Team, his group is involved in biomarker assay development, “fit for purpose” qualification and clinical biomarker analyses using the flow cytometry technology platform. These qualified biomarker assays have been successfully implemented in several clinical trials to enable better understanding of target engagement, PK/PD relationships, guide dose selection and study safety/efficacy. In addition, his group supports with flow cytometry based assays in the discovery and pre-clinical space to build data package for moving drug molecules to FIH studies.

Dr. D’silva started his research career at the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. Following this, he moved to Germany and obtained his PhD from the University Of Cologne, Germany. For his PhD, hestudied the molecular mechanisms of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) induced cervical cancer. Further, he demonstrated using RNA interference the critical interactions between viral and host proteins necessary for maintenance of the disease. Subsequently, he returned to India and joined ReaMetrix India Pvt Ltd,Bangalore, a company that specialized in development and manufacture of dried reagents for flow cytometry based platforms. As a Scientist, he was responsible for overseeing the manufacturing team and also contributed to the clinical validation of in-house developed diagnostic reagents for submission for US-FDA 510(k) clearance and CE certification. (Reametrix was subsequently acquired by Beckman Coulter Life Sciences in 2013).

Dr. D’silva has served as an industrial representative on the board of studies for autonomous educational institutions. In this role, he was involved in reviewing the course curriculum and providing inputs to make the curricular more relevant to current scientific trends. Dr. D’silva is also regularly invited to speak at conferences, workshops and institutes.

Lecture: Role of Flow Cytometry in Drug Discovery

Flow cytometry technology has been utilized as a research tool and in diagnostics. Recent advances in development of novel fluorescent dyes, instrumentation and data analyses tools have pushed the boundaries for high order multi color flow cytometry. In this talk, the application of flow cytometry to the field of drug discovery and development, with special emphasis on cancer immunotherapy will be discussed.

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