People

Principal, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad

Member Secretary, Governing Board of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Dr. Chhabria is the Principal of L. M. College of Pharmacy since 2014. He has over 26 years of experience in academia, industry as well as Research and Development. His areas of research interest are design and synthesis of small heterocycles of biological interest in the therapeutic classes of Antituberculosis, Anticancer, Lipid lowering agents (HDL elevators), Antihistamines (H1-receptor antagonists) and Antipsychotics (D2 antagonist). He is passionate about exploring the application of Green Chemistry approach in organic synthesis. He received MPharm (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) and PhD (Pharmaceutical Sciences) from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.

He has more than 75 Research Publications in National and International peer-reviewed journals and more than 70 presentations in various National and International Scientific conferences. He also has a Chapter published in international reference book, 4 Patents and many awards for his research work to his credit. He has delivered more than 50 invited lectures at various scientific symposia. He has guided more than 125 MPharm and 7 PhD scholars. He has been a Reviewer of four international scientific journals. He was instrumental in getting over several State and Central Government Grants worth over INR 10 crores including those from SSIP, Govt. of Gujarat and from AIM, NITI Aayog, Govt. of India.

Dr. Chhabria is a Fellow of Indian Chemical Society (FICS) and Fellow of Gujarat Science Academy (FGSA). He has contributed as a member of Board of Studies/Senate member for different reputed institutions and universities in Gujarat and Rajasthan. He is a Life Member of AMA and APTI.

Associate Professor, Division of Biological & Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad

Member, Executive Committee of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Dr. Vivek Tanavde is an Associate Professor at Division of Biological & Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University. Dr. Vivek Tanavde was a Principal Investigator at the Bioinformatics Institute (BII), Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore in the Genome & Gene Expression Data Analysis. His research focused on understanding the link between miRNA regulation, cell signaling pathways and the manner in which this affects cellular function. His laboratory developed bioinformatics tools and approaches which were used in understanding miRNA regulation in Mesenchymal Stem Cells, zebrafish embryo development as well as neuronal stem cells and skin cells. This was done using careful interrogation of the cellular misnomer and transcriptome using microarray and next generation sequencing. Prior to joining BII, he was heading the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Lab at Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai where his work focused on developing mesenchymal stromal cell based therapies for cardiac and neuronal disorders. In addition, he also set up and managed the clinical flow cytometry laboratory at Reliance Life Sciences. From 1999 to 2002 he was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Curt Civin at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre, Johns Hopkins University working on expansion of hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Dr. Tanavde obtained his Ph.D. from the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai (1999) in Applied Biology.

Dr. Tanavde served as Treasurer, Asia for Asia committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT). He was the Secretary of the Stem Cell Society Singapore from 2011-2016 & serves on the Live Education Task Force of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC). In 2016, he was awarded honorary life time membership of the Stem Cell Society Singapore in recognition of his role in the Society.

In addition to his academic roles, he also managed the Intellectual Property portfolio at BII and liaised with companies interested in collaborating with BII. He was responsible for screening technology disclosures before they were forwarded to A*STAR for patent filing. He was also the Industry Development Manager for BII and helped the institute achieve its revenue goals through industry research and service projects. In this capacity he negotiated with various SMEs & MNCs on behalf of BII for industry funded collaborative projects. In this role, he also assessed the strategic fit of a company in achieving A*STAR’s goals. He was also involved in the intergovernmental Dr. Tanavde also has a certificate in Commercial Law & Technology Transfer from Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. He currently holds an adjunct appointment at the Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore.

Assoc. Professor, & Head, Department of Microbiology, M. G. Science Institute, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

Member, Executive Committee of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Dr. Vivek Upasani is an Associate Professor at M. G. Science Institute, Gujarat University, Gujarat. He is an academician with more than 30 years of teaching and research experience in Microbiology and Biotechnology at UG & PG level. His research is focused on microbial diversity of saline ecosystems (archaea and microalgae) for sustainable development. He has been involved in pioneering work on the isolation, characterization and cultivation of extremely haloalkaliphilic and halophilic archaea, as well as halophilic microalgae from soda lake (Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan); and marine salterns (Mithapur, Gujarat) India. He is also involved in studies on extremozymes (lipases, proteases, esterases, etc.) and lipids from halophilic archaea. His current research involves Halophilic archaebacteria from hypersaline environments in India, Halophilic microalgae from hypersaline environments in India, Hydrocarbon degrading /utilizing bacteria from oil wells for bioremediation, Endophytic fungi from medicinal plants for Sennosides and L-DOPA, and Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of Natrialba SSL1 (haloarchaea) and Euhalothece (halophilic microalgae).

In his administrative capacity he has been coordinating grants from agencies such as UGC, DBT, GUJCOST, GSBTM, etc. He received his MSc and PhD (Microbiology) from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad and Diploma in Management from IGNOU. He was the CIDA/NSERC Visiting Research Associate at Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada and also the recipient of The Rockefeller Foundation, Biotechnology Career Fellowship (New York, USA,), 2001 for the post. He has more than 25 Research Publications in National and International peer-reviewed journals and many presentations in various National and International Scientific conferences.

Professor – Pharmacology, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad

Member, Executive Committee of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Dr. Shah is the Professor and Head Department of PharmD and MPharm at L. M. College of Pharmacy. He has over 26 years of experience in academics, industry as well as Research and Development. His areas of research interest and expertise are both in vivo and in vitro preclinical pharmacology in the area of inflammatory disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, hematological disorders, respiratory disorders. He received M. Pharm (Pharmacology) and Ph.D. (Pharmaceutical Sciences) from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. He has undertaken many industrial research projects for Toxicity evaluation and pharmacodynamic studies for drugs and formulations. He has conducted several training programmes on Good Clinical Practice, Animal Handling and Ethics in Clinical and Animal Research.

He has more than 60 Research Publications in National and International peer-reviewed journals and more than 20 presentations in various National and International Scientific conferences. He also has coauthored books for undergraduate Pharmacy students, 6 Patents and many awards (such as Jaipur Award by Indian Pharmacological Society, Hariom Ashram Award, Ahmedabad Branch IPS Award) for his research work to his credit. He has delivered more than 50 invited lectures at various scientific symposia. He has guided more than 67 MPharm and 8 PhD scholars. He has been a Reviewer of international scientific journals. He was instrumental in getting several State and Central Government Grants worth over Rs. 30 lakhs.

Dr. Shah is Chairman, Sterling hospital clinical research ethics committee. Ahmedabad and President of IPA, Gujarat State branch. He has contributed as a member of Board of Studies/Senate member for different reputed institutions and universities in Gujarat. He is a Life Member of IPA, IPS, IPGA and APTI.

CEO, AIC-LMCP Foundation, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad

Member, Executive Committee of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Shrinivas S. Savale, Ph.D., is the CEO of AIC-LMCP Foundation at L. M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad. He is an acknowledged leader with over twenty two years of professional experience in drug research, development and compliance, in pharmaceutical organization, CRO set‐up and academia. He has expertise in the areas of GxP (GLP, GCP, GMP) compliance including data integrity, gap analysis and resolution for electronic data workflow and IT systems in GxP environment, CRO/Vendor qualification, electronic solutions deployment for automation of bioanalytical/clinical laboratory workflows (LIMS, SDMS)/clinical workflow (Phase I/BA‐BE), regulated bioanalysis, biopharmaceutics and early clinical development including bioequivalence for small molecules and biosimilars/biologicals and has been supporting pharmaceutical organizations and CROs in these areas.

He was also an Adjunct Professor - Quality Assurance (M.Pharm & Pharm.D Courses) at L. M. College of Pharmacy. He was associated with Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. as General Manager–Bio‐Evaluation; Clinigene International Ltd. (presently Syngene International Ltd.) as Head‐Bioanalytical Research; and Torrent Research Center as Scientist‐II at Medicinal Chemistry Division. He received Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.

Currently he is a Member of Clinical PK‐PD subcommittee of Biosimilars Focus Group (BSFG), AAPS and also served on its Steering Committee. He served as the Track Screening CHAIR, Bioanalytics - Chemical Entity, Abstract Screening Committee, AAPS PharmSci 360, AAPS, 2018. He was the Founding Chairperson, Regulated Bioanalysis–APA India and is an active member of the organizing committee for Regulated Bioanalysis. Dr. Savale served as a Member of Steering Committee for Global Bioanalysis Consortium (GBC) on harmonization of bioanalytical guidance (via APA‐India) representing Asia‐Pacific region. He has been a Reviewer for various national and international scientific journals; invited speaker at various national and international conferences and has 20 publications, a book chapter and many scientific presentations to his credit.

Co-founder, CEO, IndiaBiz, Ahmedabad

Member, Executive Committee of AIC-LMCP Foundation

Mr. Bhagat started IndiaBiz, with his partner Haripriya, in 2013 and joined full-time since Dec 2015.
He started his career in 1999 in medical sales for Ranbaxy and went to UK for further studies in 2002. While doing his Executive MBA, he worked with McDonalds to MBNA Bank to Royal Mail. From 2005 till 2008, he worked as a medical sales representative in the UK in primary and secondary healthcare. In 2008, he joined Genericsweb, an Australian company then. He joined as a Business Development Manager for its intellectual property services for generics and pharmaceuticals in the UK and Europe. He worked with Genericsweb till the time it was acquired by IMS (now IQVIA), London. He contributed greatly in the European business growth (3 times) for Genericsweb.
He developed a robust business acumen and achieved a proven track record in building and developing businesses and client relations during his tenure in various employment positions in the UK and India. His venture IndiaBiz focusses on SME's deal network for M&A, Investments, JV/Partnerships, Franchise and more. In his professional journey, he has contributed as a speaker, mentor, and presented at various conferences and events as an expert on SME's deal-making.