Her work bridges disciplines through collaborations with global and national partners, including projects supported by the Gates Foundation, SPARC, BIRAC, and the National University of Singapore. She also co-leads a DBT-funded platform for evaluating SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics and played a key role in Karnataka’s COVID-19 testing response.

Previously, Dr. Karumbati was Lead Scientist at C-CAMP, where she led a drug discovery program targeting HIV-1, and worked in the diagnostics industry at ReaMetrix Pvt. Ltd. She holds a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky, completed postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan, and earned her B.Pharm (Hons.) from BITS Pilani.

As President of SSX India, Dr. Karumbati is dedicated to promoting research, collaboration, and capacity-building in the fields of xenobiotics, drug metabolism, and safety sciences.

Dr. Thakkar has more than 20 years of National & International (India, UK, USA) experience in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (DMPK, QA, and DRA). She started her career as a QC Chemist at Elysium Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Baroda. She has worked as a faculty member in a few academic organisations: Parul University, Baroda; ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga; Baddi University; Delhi Pharmaceutical Science and Research University (DPSRU), New Delhi and Amity University, Noida. She has developed and established a government (CDSCO & NABL) approved commercialized drug testing laboratory named ISF Analytical Laboratory (ISFAL), Moga. At present, she is Associate Director, Business Development, PumasAI Inc. USA.

Dr. Thakkar has 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals; 76 Presentations in International (USA, UK, China) and National Conferences; 6 Indian Patent and 1 International Book Chapter, 7 Books (D. Pharm., B. Pharm., and M. Pharm.), 5 Research Projects (AICTE, India; INMAS, India; DST, India; NIH, USA and J&J, USA) worth Rs. 1 crore from Indian and International funding agencies, and 11 National & International awards (including IPGA FELLOWSHIP AWARD-2019, BEST RESEARCH GUIDE-2012 award from Troika Pharmaceuticals & LM College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad and FAST TRACK YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD from DST, New Delhi, two times Best Poster Presentation award, DMPK Symposium, NIPER, Mohali and BEST RESEARCH PAPER AWARD from PD Sethi Memorial Award) to her credit. She is the first certified trainer of the Quality Assurance Chemist job role, by LSSSDC, New Delhi. She is a recipient of the “Young Achiever Award (2023)” from MSU Pharmacy Alumni Association. She has guided more than 42 M. Pharmacy Students (Pharm. Analysis, QA, DRA & Pharmaceutics) and guided 6 Ph. D. Students. Her core research areas are Formulations Development; DMPK, Method Development & Validation; Current Drug Regulatory Affairs.

She is a life member of IPGA, IHPA, APTI, SPER, MSU Pharmacy Alumni Association (MPA). She is a member of AAPS and ISSX. She is an executive council member of the Society for Study of Xenobiotics (SSX), India since 2019 and currently she is secretary, SSX India. She is executive council member of IPGA, and MPA. She was a Co-convener, the IPGA Women Forum, and Secretary, Delhi Pharmaceutical Council, Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry since 2020. She was an editorial board member (2019-2021) followed by Editor-in-Chief (2022) for IPGA Today Magazine.

Dr. Thakkar has organized National and International conferences (IPGA-2009; IHPA-2010; APTI-2011; Indo-Taiwan International Workshop-2011; INSPIRE Camp - 2012; National Seminar of CRS Indian Chapter-2016; 70th IPC-2018; Annual Conference of SSX-India from 2018 till date as LOC member) and Scientific Services Committee Member 71st IPC-2019, 72nd IPC-2022. She is a Scientific Committee Member of Disso Research Presentation India - 2020 and 2021 and North Zone coordinator 2022, organized by Soc. for Pharmaceutical Dissolution Science.

During his PhD, he worked extensively on drug-drug interaction of first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in fixed-dose combination at the GIT level and came up with mechanism of DDI that leads to sub-therapeutic plasma level of rifampicin. He also worked on various ways to protect the degradation of rifampicin at the GI level and this hypothesis helped a pharmaceutical company to come up with a novel fixed dose combination.

Dr. Mariappan has twenty years of research experience in pharmaceutical industry and two years of teaching experience. He started his career as a lecturer at Nalanda College of Pharmacy, Andhra Pradesh, India. Then he joined pharmaceutical industry as a DMPK scientist from 2005. He has worked in multiple Indian pharmaceutical companies in drug discovery, which includes Research Scientist at Orchid Research Laboratories (Chennai), Senior Scientist at Nicholas Piramal Research Centre (Mumbai) and Senior Lead Investigator at Syngene International Ltd. (Bangalore).

His area of expertise is metabolism and pharmacokinetics in early-phase drug discovery. He involved in discovering several clinical candidates for various therapeutic areas such as, systemic lupus erythematosus, depression, and immuno-oncology. He also involved in establishing various preclinical animal models to mechanistically understand the disposition of NCEs. He has got 42 publications in peer reviewed journals. Recently, he published several research articles related to endogenous biomarkers to predict transporters related DDI and neuro-pharmacokinetics.

In addition to the research, he is serving several academic positions with an objective of developing DMPK science in Asia-Pacific region. He is a founding member of the Indian Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (SSX-India) and serves as President, SSX-India. He successfully led eight annual conferences of SSX-India, including the 7th Asia-Pacific ISSX meeting at Bangalore, India. He is also serving as member of Scientific Affairs and Finance committee of ISSX. He introduced a virtual ‘certificate course on DMPK’, which is highly appreciated and utilized by the young researchers in the DMPK field. He also served as active members of Pharmaceutical Education Board of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE); Research & Innovation Council of M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences and Adjunct faculty at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Madgula has over 20 years of experience in DMPK and toxicological sciences. Following his postdoctoral research, he began his industrial career in 2010 with Advinus Therapeutics (now Eurofins Advinus), India, in the Drug Discovery Unit. As a DMPK Coordinator, he supported integrated drug discovery programs for both internal and external clients.

In 2017, he joined Syngene International, where he redefined in vitro ADME assays to support PROTAC-based drug discovery programs and developed strategies to establish PK/PD relationships.

He also heads the CIVM lab, which focuses on supporting emerging modalities in the DMPK domain, driving innovation and advancing capabilities in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics.

His core research interests include:

• In vitro–in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE)
• Metabolism and transporter-based drug-drug interactions
• Designing strategies to establish PK/PD and efficacy relationships

Publications: Dr. Madgula has authored more than 20 original research publications in peer- reviewed journals, focusing on drug metabolism, drug transporters, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacology.

Surulivel Rajan Mallayasamy received his postgraduate degree from Tamilnadu Dr.M.G.R. Medical University Chennai. He completed PhD in population pharmacokinetics from Manipal University in the year 2011. He had his post-doctoral experience from University of North Texas Health Science Centre, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He also got training at University of Michigan Health System, USA in the year 2007 in clinical Pharmacy services. He was part of first summer school in pharmacometrics conducted by Uppsala University, Sweden in the year 2010. He started his teaching career in the year 2001 and has more than 24 years of teaching besides a brief stint at Industry.

He has around 90 publications to his credit in national and international journals and serving as a reviewer in national and international journals. He is running funded research projects and supervising doctoral research projects at center for pharmacometrics in his university. He travels around the country to teach and interact with students to train and talk on pharmacometrics and its relevance to drug development and therapeutics. He has given around 150 invited lectures in his career. He has keen interest in the implementation of AI in drug development and therapeutics.

He is the President of the Society of Pharmacometrics and Health Analytics (SOPHAS). Under his leadership SOPHAS is running different courses and programs connected to pharmacometrics, Bioequivalence and AL and ML. SOPHAS is training next generation talent in the field of pharmacometrics, which will benefit Indian pharmaceutical industries and clinical pharmacological research and implementation in clinical settings.

He is associated with SSX India for over a decade and supports the DMPK certificate course conducted by the society as a resource person and a course coordinator. DMPK course trained around 750 students till date on the science of ADMET science and its implications in drug development.

He earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), Lucknow, where he focused on identifying biomarkers for various cancers. Dr. Shashyendra began his career at Advinus Therapeutics in drug development before transitioning into discovery research.

Over the years, he has worked extensively on mass spectrometry based analysis of both small and large molecules. His core expertise lies in protein quantitation and mass spectrometry driven proteomics and metabolomics.

Dr. Shashyendra has authored 18 peer-reviewed publications focusing on bioanalysis and DMPK aspects of drug discovery. He also serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals, including Drug Metabolism and Disposition, Current Drug Metabolism, Clinical Proteomics, Journal of Chromatography B, and Chemosphere.

An active member of the bioanalytical and pharmacokinetics community, he frequently presents at scientific conferences, panel discussions, and webinars.

Her key research domains encompass:

• Nano-Bio and molecular material sciences: Pioneering novel drug delivery systems
• Pharmacokinetics-based Simulation & Modeling: Advancing therapeutic insights
• Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems: Enhancing bioavailability
• Thin film drug delivery: Innovative approaches for patient-centric care

She fosters active collaborations with interdisciplinary experts and professional societies nationwide. Noteworthy affiliations include:

• Life Member, Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India
• Indian Pharmacy Graduates Association
• Karnataka State Pharmacy Council
• Indian Solidarity Council

Academic and professional milestones:

• Prolific author: Book chapters, research papers in prestigious international journals
• Editorial roles: Editor-in-Chief and editorial member, in professional journals.
• Delivered impactful guest lectures at national and international forums
• Honored with National Mahila Ratan Gold medal (Indian Institution of Education Management, New Delhi) and Rashtriya Vidya Gaurav Puraskar (Indian Solidarity Council, New Delhi) for outstanding pharmacy contributions
• Esteemed evaluator for postgraduate and doctoral studies, resource person, and National Advisory Committee Member across conferences.

Dr. Amol A. Raje post-graduated in Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology from Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur and did his PhD in biomedical sciences from Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai.

Dr. Amol worked in Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Wockhardt Limited, Vimta Labs, Advinus Therapeutics Limited, and Eurofins Advinus Limited. Currently, he is working as Associate Director in the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics group of Discovery Biology, Syngene International Limited, Bengaluru. He has around 24 years of experience in providing DMPK support to Drug Discovery programs in more than 30 therapeutic targets spanning therapeutic areas like inflammation, neuroscience, metabolic disorders, oncology, anti-malarial, and anti-infective research. He has extensive experience working in different drug modalities like small molecules, large molecules, PROTACs, ADCs, molecular glues, and peptides.

As a key contributor, he has successfully led the discovery and optimization of 2 NCEs from bench to Indian market and was an active member of the team that nominated five clinical candidates for early clinical trials. Dr. Amol is interested in translational research, including herb-drug/drug interactions and human PK and dose projections.

Dr. Amol has published around 23 original research papers in leading national and international journals with high impact factors. He has presented over 30 abstracts/posters at national and international conferences.