Dr. Bhyravbhatla Balaji

Biography

Dr. Balaji, after his Ph.D in Biophysics from Brandies University started his career as post doc in Florida state University and later remained as a visiting faculty member in the Institute of Molecular Biophysics and played major role in facilities planning, setting up of infrastructure as well as training programs. Later, in 2001 he joined as faculty in University of Massachusetts medical school and instrumental in starting the research core in structural biology and training programs in structural biology in the Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He continued his research on large protein structures and mechanisms of oxygen transport using haemoglobin from various species as well as computational methods for solvent models and ligand binding. His technical expertise in early stage drug discovery and mechanism of action studies, small molecule characterization and API developments, analyzing patents and formulating IP strategies led him to co found XTAL Biostructures for structure guided drug discovery services. He led XTAL from its inception, first as VP for research and later as its CEO to a multimillion dollar self funded organically growing company. Recently he stepped down as the CEO of XTAL to start Hylasco Biotechnology in 2012 partnering with internationally reputed manufactures and suppliers of animal models and related services. His vision is to bring down the cost of drug discovery by providing appropriate animal models in a cost effective way to the Indian Pharma and Biotech sectors.

Research Interest

Toxicology