Affiliation : Professor and Project Director (i/c), Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals, TANUVAS, Chennai, India
Title of the Talk/Lab :
K.G. Tirumurugaan is a veterinarian by profession and had a specialization in Animal Biotechnology from Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. He is basically a virologist and his research area includes innate immunity, signal transduction and the application of platform technologies for the diagnosis of diseases of livestock importance. He applied his expertise in molecular biology during his Post Doctoral Associateship at the University of Minnesota, USA to understand the contribution of CD38 and its downstream signaling to Ca2+ mobilization in smooth muscles and its role in airway hyper-responsiveness.
As a virologist, he had been working on the Newcastle disease virus genotypes and its cross-protection and also in understanding the role of innate immunity in naturally occurring disease resistance / susceptible models (PPRV infection in small/ large ruminants; NDV infection in chicken/ turkey). He is a recipient of a travel grant from FAO, United Nations and OIE to attend the PPR GREN meeting at the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya in 2019 for his research work on PPRV in unnatural hosts. He received several awards for his contribution to Veterinary Research (basic and applied) both at the University level and also from many scientific associations in India and abroad.
He has 89 publications to his credit with a total of 954 citations, h index of 15, and i10 index of 22 since 2017. He is the first author of the group that has the credit of reporting a died-out genotype (genotype IV) of NDV in India and understanding the cross-protection to the available genotype II vaccines; the whole-transcriptome from the Shark species (Chiloscyllium griseum) and identifying several innate immune receptors that are present in higher vertebrates. His research also has resulted in few technologies of diagnostic importance that have been well validated and reports on signal transduction pathways and gene expression regulation.
He has one patent granted, two patents filed and has commercialized few technologies that have been developed from external and institution-funded projects (Fowl Cholera Vaccine, ABT-Choice kit, EndoMet B-PB, Nano Newcastle disease vaccine, TANUCHEK SCC test kit, Photolyser and Teat Protect) and few of them are available in the market and also used at field level
He is currently heading the Translational Research Platform for Veterinary Biologicals a unique partnership programme between DBT and TANUVAS which operates intending to convert science into commercializable technologies by fostering an inclusive ecosystem involving academic, industry and regulatory agencies. As part of this platform, he had been involved in validating diagnostic assays (for Brucella, Leptospira, etc.) for their fitness for purpose as per the OIE pathway of validation.
He is also duly supported by externally funded grants from several agencies obtained through competitive mode. He is a member of National level committees with specific reference to Biosafety and rDNA research.
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