Manoj Kumar Chhikara

Biography

Dr. Manoj Kumar, (Ph.D., Bacteriology) is working as Director, R&D heading the conjugate vaccine research at MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories in New Delhi. In his 15 years of research career, he has worked on different stages of development of several vaccine candidates, biosimilar products and diagnostics from concept till pre-clinical development and regulatory submissions. His major contributions come in research and development of multivalent pneumococcal, meningococcal and H. influenzae type b conjugate vaccines, acellular pertussis vaccine, monoplex and multiplexed immunoassays, multiplexed and quantitative PCRs, monoclonal antibodies against polysaccharides and protein antigens. He has participated in expert group meetings focused on pneumococcal vaccine and epidemiology conducted by WHO, ICMR and ASIP group. He is a contributing scientist for WHO TRS977 Annex 3 for recommendations to assure quality, safety and efficacy of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and 3 WHO expert reports. He has 13 patent applications, 12 peer reviewed publications, 2 book chapters, 4 popular articles, several gene sequences, 12 national and international awards in his name. His focus areas include: New vaccine development; Cost effective vaccine technologies; Developing faster analytical methods, and Technology transfers.

Research Interest

R&D