Ratnagiri Polavarapu

Biography

Dr. Ratna Giri Polavarapu received his doctoral degree from Madras University in 1983 in the field of Biochemistry under the guidance of Prof. Naydamma, Director General of CSIR and Secretary to Science and Technology. Following that he received prestigious fellowship in 1983 at National Institutes of Health, and started his carrier as scientist in broad spectrum of fields in biomedical research until 1993. He gained extensive experience in the field of Molecular and cellular biology and use of state-of-the-art technologies that resulted in cloning several important gene families and their functional role in disease processes. He moved to Penn State University, School of Medicine as a faculty (1993-1997) and initiated research programs in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and molecular aspects of drug metabolism and received several national grants and program projects. He also established molecular Core labs to serve the scientific community regarding their genomics needs.Dr. Polavarapu headed as Director of DNA Core Facility and Professor in the departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, served in both research and teaching capacities at Emory University. He established high throughput macromolecular core facility as one of the first core labs in the country for automated DNA sequencing, High-density Microarray Gene Chip technology; laser captured microscopy (LCM), RT PCR and other state-of-the-art technologies and trained students and employees. He also involved in designing and execution of projects and collaborated with several investigators regarding their functional genomics studies (1997-2002). He joined CDC/Homeland Security (2002-2005) and played vital role and successfully deployed rapid detecting molecular methodologies and for bench marking rapid detection of several crucial agents of bioterrorism and received Certificate of Appreciation from Secretary of Homeland Security. He took over as Director of Operations at MWG Biotech, world leader in genomics and revitalized the work force, streamlined the production process and introduced high margin product lines and services to reflect on the sales and economy of the corporation (2005-2006).He is also serving as chairman of Numbers only Inc (1997-till date) and has been involved in an advisory role for the companys healthcare informatics initiatives.

Research Interest

Several focused functional genomics projects using rapid molecular diagnostics kits and microarrays for clinical and research purposes, production of biopharmaceuticals, consultancy and CRO for automated sequencing and other functional genomics needs with strategic intelligence for QC, QA, ISO for biotech.