MedGenome Inc. is a global leader in personalized medicine with unique genomic solutions in immuno-oncology, diabetes, ophthalmology, cardiology and other rare diseases.
Founded in 2013, MedGenome currently has a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) facility that houses sequencing platforms such as Illumina’s NovaSeq, HiSeq X, HiSeq 2500, and the MiSeq. We also have 10X Chromium for Single Cell assays along with Miltenyi gentleMACS tissue dissociation platform. To support our high-throughput lab operations, we have installed the Promega Maxwell(R) RSC 48 System for extraction of automation. Our services offerings extends to Spatial Transcriptomics, Antibody Discovery services using Single Cell, CAR-T, CRISPR and Epigenetics. All of these solutions require extensive support on custom and advanced bioinformatics, a capability that we have developed in-house.
In addition to our wet-lab capabilities, we have built proprietary solutions to enable pharma and biotech companies accelerate their early drug discovery pipeline as well as aid in biomarker discovery for their companion diagnostics programs. Our proprietary cancer immunotherapy solution, OncoPept combines tumor-derived genomic and transcriptomic data to map the molecular features of the tumor and predict personalized cancer immunotherapy combinations with neoantigen vaccines for therapy. MedGenome was awarded the MedTech Breakthrough award for Biomedical research in 2018.
We also support human genetics research by leveraging our extensive infrastructure to access samples and data from patient records through collaborations with over 500 hospitals in India, combined with capabilities to perform population level genomic sequencing of individuals. Through our extensive presence in the Indian sub-continent, we have access to data that provides insights into genetic diversity of Indian population for more than 4,500 population groups. Bioinformatics pipelines built to analyse data from large-scale sequencing efforts will facilitate identifying novel human genetic knockouts and medically relevant variants for drug discovery research.
MedGenome is also founding member of the GenomeAsia 100K, an initiative to sequence 100,000 Genomes in Asia, which will enable us to provide a unique resource of genetic research for the world.
MedGenome Inc. is registered and headquartered in the State of Delaware having its address at 108 West 13th Street City of Wilmington County of New Castle Delaware 19801.
Sam Santhosh
Founder, Director
Sam Santhosh founded MedGenome in 2013. Passionate about science technology, he has close to three decades of experience in launching and running successful businesses. He has been the Founder, CEO and Managing Director of California Software Limited (Calsoft) and had also successfully listed the company after a few years. He is currently an advisor to several life science and technology companies. Sam holds a degree in Engineering from University of Calicut and an MBA from IIM Calcutta and has attended Executive education programs at MIT and Singularity University.
Mahesh Pratapneni
Group CEO & Co-Founder, Director
Mahesh co-founded MedGenome and has focussed on strategy, organization building and strategic initiatives. Mahesh is passionate about building innovative companies that leverage science and technology, while also creating social impact. He co-founded GenomeAsia 100 K, a non-profit initiative for improving Asian representation in genomic research. Mahesh is the Founder and MD of Emerge Ventures that specializes in incubating product companies in the education, healthcare, and data/analytics sectors. He holds a B. Tech. degree in Electronics and Communications from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. Mahesh is one of the youngest to be recognized as IIM Calcutta Distinguished Alumnus.
Sanjay Kumar Sharma
Chief Commercial Officer
Sanjay Kumar Sharma is a sales and marketing professional with more than two decades of experience spanning sales, marketing, operations and P&L management. At MedGenome, he is responsible for commercial strategy, market development and expansion. Under his leadership, MedGenome has been able to expand its network of clinicians and hospitals. Prior to MedGenome, he was associated with Oncquest Labs, Guardian Lifecare, Ranbaxy and Dabur Ayurved. Sanjay holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Birla Institute of Management Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Delhi.
Dr. V L Ramprasad
CEO - India
Dr. Vedam Ramprasad is a scientist with several peer-reviewed publications to his credit. He believes in harnessing the power of genomics for providing better outlook to patients. He has been with MedGenome since its inception and spearheads operations and strategy. He has been a prime driver in building the diverse genetic testing portfolio MedGenome offers. He is also credited for launching some of the critical genetic tests at affordable price which include the Non-Invasive Pre-natal test (NIPT), Carrier screening test, and Liquid Biopsy to name a few. His commitment to adhere to the highest quality standards and processes has been instrumental in obtaining CAP accreditation for MedGenome. With over a two decade of experience, Dr. Ramprasad was previously associated with Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Spinco Biotech and SciGenom labs. He holds a Master’s degree and a PhD from BITS, Pilani.
Dr. Shankar Sikri
Vice President, Corporate Development
Dr. Shankar Sikri has over 15 years of experience working as a doctor and investment banker. He started his career working as a physician in the UK before moving to investment banking, where he spent 11 years working for HSBC, Deutsche Bank and most recently, as a Managing Director at Evercore, based in London. During his time as an investment banker, Shankar was primarily focused on advising healthcare companies on M&A opportunities, IPOs, fund raisings and overall company strategy. He has been involved in advising companies on over $220bn of M&A transactions and IPOs, across all healthcare sub-sectors, including large cap pharma, biotech, medtech and healthcare services. Shankar has an MBBS and a BSc (Hons) degree from Imperial College, London and has qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians.
Surajit Chakrabartty
Chief Financial Officer
Surajit Chakrabartty is a financial expert with over 18 years of experience across diverse sectors such as e-Commerce, Retail, Media & Advertising and Manufacturing. Process implementation and building financial enterprises are his core strengths. In his career span, Surajit has successfully managed multiple projects including ERP implementations and internal control systems design across organisations. At MedGenome, he leads the finance function and is responsible for treasury management, financial forecasting, planning, and budgeting, reporting and assessing future business risks. He has successfully automated multiple processes while adhering to quality standards, rules and regulations. Surajit brings with him extensive experience and in-depth expertise of debt and other financing developed over his stellar career. Previously, he was associated with Redbus.in, Medybiz Pharma Private Limited and Rediffusion Y&R. He is also featured as one amongst India’s Most Influential CFOs (awarded by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). Surajit is a Chartered Accountant from ICAI.
Dr. Amitabha Chaudhuri
Vice President, R & D
Dr. Amitabha Chaudhuri brings over two decades of experience in discovering and validating novel targets and biomarkers of diseases, most extensively in oncology. His earlier work at CuraGen Corporation and Genentech has equipped him to work with multidimensional data from high throughput protein-interaction and NGS technologies for drug discovery work. Amit Chaudhuri is the Head of R&D at MedGenome and is particularly responsible for driving the novel Immuno-oncology products and solutions. Through his leadership, MedGenome has built its unique solutions to address challenges facing the IO field. He is actively involved in IO research in India in diseases such as Head & Neck cancer and familial colorectal cancer with a goal to target these diseases using cancer vaccines and combination therapy. He is also driving new research in the areas of autoimmunity and liver diseases at MedGenome. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and did his Post-Doctoral research training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and at the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Harvard University.
Dr. Eric Stawiski
Vice President, Bioinformatics
Dr. Eric Stawiski is responsible for commercial, research and development of bioinformatics operations at MedGenome. Previously, he was with Genentech for 8 years as a Senior Scientist and Bioinformatics Group Leader. His team focused on analyzing RNA-seq, exome and copy-number data to identify potential driver genes and drug targets in cancers as well as evaluating emerging sequencing technologies. His work has led to multiple first author papers in Nature, Nature Genetics and other high impact journals. He holds a PhD in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from University of California, San Diego.
Hiranjith G H
VP & Head of Research Services
Hiranjith has over 15 years of experience in defining and executing commercial strategies within multi-national organizations. In his prior experience, he has led engagements with Janssen Biotech (formerly Centocor biotech), GE and Medimmune, among others, with the niche pharma consulting firm, ZS Associates. He has extensive experience with strategic planning for launch brands and in-market brands as part of franchise planning teams at Novartis. He is currently responsible for driving sales, marketing and partnership activities for MedGenome in the US. He transitioned to focus on the US business after a successful stint as the Director for Corporate Planning, Marketing and Communications with MedGenome in India. His healthcare experience in brand planning, primary & secondary market research, analytics, forecasting and competitive intelligence is leveraged in designing the commercial campaigns for the markets that MedGenome focuses on. Hiranjith holds a Master’s in Business Administration and an engineering degree and also completed certification courses in Machine Learning by Stanford University.
Dr. Felix Olale Leapfrog
Director
Dr. Felix Olale is a Partner at LeapFrog Investments and the firm’s Global Co-Leader for Health Investments. He also serves as a Board Trustee and Chairman of the Governance Committee for PATH, a leading global health innovator and is a Member of EMPEA’s Africa Council. He is an entrepreneur and physician scientist, renowned for his work in building businesses and investing in healthcare in emerging markets. Dr. Olale has previously been the Chairman of the Excelsior Group and Senior Advisor to the International Finance Corporation (IFC). He was also the Co-founder of Strathmore Business School’s Institute for Healthcare Management, and a founding member of Safaricom’s Health Advisory Board. Dr. Olale holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and Medical Degree and Doctorate from New York University’s School of Medicine.
Neeraj Bhargava
Independent Director
Neeraj is a successful entrepreneur with a decade of experience in the investment industry. He is the Founder, CEO and Senior Managing Director of Zodius Capital Advisors and is an investor operator and board member at companies like BigBasket, Allygrow Technologies and Markets & Markets. He is also the CEO and Chairman of Rainshine Entertainment, a next-generation media and entertainment company. He has co-founded and led multiple companies including WNS Global Services and eVentures India and has been a partner at McKinsey Company leading practices and client relationships in the technology sector. Neeraj, an alumnus of St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, India holds a BA in Economics.
Tejeshwi Sharma Sequoia Capital
Director
As a Principal, Tejeshwi Sharma advises on growth stage technology investments for Sequoia in India. He currently serves on the boards of Moglix, MedGenome, Rebel Foods and Whatfix. In the past, Tejeshwi has managed Tencent’s India investments, where he led investment in Byju’s and Dream 11. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and an MBA from Stanford GSB.
Somasekar Seshagiri
Chief (Genomics and Informatics) & Head (US Operations)
Sekar Seshagiri is a world leader in the field of genomics and drug discovery. Prior to his current role, he spent over 20 years at Genentech where he was a Staff Scientist and Associate Director. During his tenure at Genentech, he established a state-of-the-art genomics laboratory where he conducted research in cancer and cell signaling areas to support drug discovery and development. His research work has been at the forefront of understanding underlying genetic changes in cancer genomes through systematic identification of somatic mutations in large number of cancer types and subtypes using next generation sequencing, computational methods, and functional assays. He has authored and co-authored over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, Science, and Cancer Cell. He obtained his B.Sc., (Agriculture) and M.Sc., (Biotechnology) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, a M.S, (Software Engineering) from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, US and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, US.
Dr. Andrew Peterson
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Andrew Peterson will lead the company’s research programs to identify drug targets and biomarkers by leveraging its unparalleled access to South Asian cohorts and disease phenotypes. Prior to joining MedGenome, Dr. Peterson was a Senior Director of Molecular Biology at Genentech, primarily focused on genomics applications for therapeutic interventions in areas such as cardiovascular diseases and liver diseases, resulting in molecules in clinical development.
Dr. Andrew Peterson has also led the scientific efforts of a consortium that produced a comprehensive catalogue of genetic variation across Asia as part of GenomeAsia 100K consortium. These efforts led to the development of imputation tools for South Asian genomes based on 30X WGS from >8,000 individuals. The project is advancing to catalogue the coding variation in more than 35,000 genomes using a combination of WGS and exome data, so that custom SNP arrays as well as imputation could be called upon in the design of genetic studies in South Asians.
Mahesh Pratapneni
Group CEO & Co-Founder, Director
Somasekar Seshagiri
Chief (Genomics and Informatics) & Head (US Operations)
Dr. Stephan C Schuster is currently the Research Director and Professor at the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. Dr .Schuster has over 15 years of experience setting up and operating centralized sequencing core labs at Max Plank Institute in Germany and Penn State in the US. He won the Science magazine’s break through of the year award in 2006 (runner up) and 2008 (Top 10). He was also awarded the Time Magazine’s top ten Scientific discoveries in 2008 and along with W. Miller was among Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people of 2009. His research interests include Metagenomics, Evolutionary Biology and ancient DNA.
DR. ISHWAR C. VERMA
Dr. I. C. Verma is currently the head of the Department of Genetic Medicine at Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. Previously he was a Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics in AIIMS, New Delhi. He received genetics training in the UK, USA & Switzerland. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Academy of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He has received a number of national awards – Ranbaxy Science Award, ICMR, NAMS and BC Roy Medical Council award. He is a Member and Vice-chairman of the Ethics Committee of the International Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and serves as a genetics adviser for the WHO in Geneva, and to Roche Genetics in Basel. He has vast experience in genetic counseling, serving about 2000 cases with genetic problems every year, and bringing the benefits of genetics and genomics to large number of patients.
DR. C. N. RAMCHAND
Dr. C. N. Ramchand serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Saksin Lifesciences Pvt Ltd. and MagGenome Technologies Pvt Ltd. Dr.Ramchand has 30 years of industrial and academic experience in the field of drug discovery, nanotechnology and nutraceuticals. He has held key leadership positions such as India Director at Kemin Industries, India and Vice President & Head of New Drug Discovery (biological) Research Programme at Sun Pharma Advances Research Centre (SPARC) India. He has also held the position of Joint Co-ordinator and Head, Laboratory Research Program at Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield and Northern General Hospital Sheffield, UK, a prestigious University Position. Prior to this he was the Sr. Scientist and Project Head at the Institute of Biological Psychiatry at University of Wales, Bangor, UK. Dr. Ramchand has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, edited 5 books, has over 40 patents.
MedGenome vision is supported by
MedGenome Institutional Ethics Committee (MG-IEC)
Introduction
MedGenome Institutional Ethics Committee (MG-IEC) is an independent body constituted under the authority of the chairman with the primary goal of safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of research participants. The chairperson of MG-IEC is appointed from a different institution and the appointment of IEC members is solely based on their competence, experience and integrity.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF MG-IEC
The MG-IEC will review all types of research proposals involving human participants with a view to safeguard the dignity, rights, safety and wellbeing of all actual and potential research participants before approving the research proposals. The goals of research, however important, should never be permitted to override the health and wellbeing of the research subjects.
The MG-IEC will ascertain whether all the cardinal principles of research ethics viz., Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Respect for Free and Informed Consent, Respect for Human Dignity, Respect for Vulnerable Persons, Respect for Privacy and Confidentiality and Justice are taken care of in planning, conducting and reporting of the proposed research. For this purpose, it will look into the aspects of protocol review, selection of participants, voluntary participation of potential participants, informed consent process, risk benefit ratio, distribution of burden and benefit, maintenance of privacy and confidentiality and provisions for appropriate compensations. It will review the proposals before the commencement of the study as well as review periodically until the completion of the study through appropriate well-documented procedures.