Gagandeep Kang

Professor Kang is a physician scientist working on vaccines and public health, particularly focused on children and enteric infectious disease in India. Her inter-disciplinary research on the transmission, development and prevention of enteric infections and their sequelae in children in India has led to new insights and practical approaches to prevention. She has worked with colleagues at the Christian Medical College (CMC) and others institutions in India to build national rotavirus and typhoid surveillance networks to estimate disease burden and inform policy. She established laboratories to support vaccine trials and conducted phase 1-3 clinical trials of vaccines, a comprehensive approach that has supported two Indian WHO pre-qualified vaccines. She is investigating the complex relationships between infection, gut function and physical and cognitive development, and seeking to build a stronger human immunology research in India. Based at CMC for most of her career, she has established strong training programmes for students and young faculty in clinical translational medicine aiming to build a cadre of clinical researchers studying relevant problems in India. From 2016 to 2020, she was the executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, where she developed vaccine science and clinical research as key focus areas. She is an elected Fellow of all the Indian science academies, is the first Indian woman to be elected to Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology and to the Royal Society.