Dr. Virander S. Chauhan(Rhodes Scholar)

Chairman, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)
Member, University Grants Commission (UGC)
Chairman, Seventh Pay Commission – Pay Review Committee for all
Government Higher Education Institutions

Education

Delhi University, New Delhi, India, MSc (Chemistry), 1971
Delhi University, New Delhi, India, PhD (Chemistry), 1974
Oxford University, UK, PhD, 1977

Career History


1998-2014, Director of the New Delhi Component of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India.
Since 1988, Senior Scientist and Group Leader of the Malaria Research Group of the ICGEB in New Delhi.
1986-1988, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Delhi University, New Delhi.
1982-1986, Reader, Department of Chemistry, Delhi University, New Delhi.
1979-1981, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanur, India.
1977-1978, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Georgia, Atlanta, USA.
1971-1979, Lecturer, St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, New Delhi.

Scientific Activity

Research interests are in malaria vaccine and drug development research. His Group has developed procedures to prepare recombinant vaccine target antigens and with industrial partners, vaccine formulation has been developed for clinical trial, in India. His work on understanding the mechanism of actions of antimalarial drugs like chloroquine and artemisinin has led to the development of high throughput screens for malaria drug discovery. Another research interest of his Group is in the area of design, synthesis and utility of conformationally defined peptides. This work has proven useful in the design of antibiotic peptide, anti amyloid and more recently, in self assembling systems.