As Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, I teach and run an industry-funded research program in structural biology.As Director of the Bindley Bioscience Center, I play a role in making core facilities the drivers and enablers for academic researchers to succeed. Bindley core facilities will provide state-of-the-art equipment and expertise to startups and established companies. Bindley will lead in creating scientific and efficiency metrics to evaluate core facility scientists. Bindley will also work to make measurable Return on Investment as a metric for assessing core facilities.With the help of a grant from BARDA (https://drive.hhs.gov) and the Purdue Research Foundation, Bindley has taken the lead in creating a Proof of Concept program to convert academic discoveries into innovations ready for translation.

Ignite Life Science Foundation (https://ignitelsf.in) is a not-for-profit created to curate science and impact the Indian Life Sciences space. A philanthropy-funded entity ILSF believes that Indians (and Indian diaspora) should engage and support scientific research in India, for India. Innovation in Science is the solution to prosperity and peace.

UltraNutri is creating a circular economy company - converting waste to feed and fertilizer while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The engines of the cycle are insects.

I helped create and test affordable, reusable, self-sanitizing multi-layer masks. The goal was to create masks that would cost less than INR 1.00 per day to use but protect against Viral infections. The company has been acquired, and I continue to provide Scientific Advice to the new owners.

Institute of Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine is an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. The Institute is set up to solve problems by bringing together teams of people with varied expertise to work together. As the first full-time employee and the founding Deans of the Institute, I helped build the institution (participated in creating the founding principles, acquiring land, construction of the physical infrastructure, hiring faculty, etc.) and played a part in the academic and administrative leadership. inStem currently is part of the Bangalore Life Science Cluster and has over 300,000 sq ft of laboratory space and several thematic programs. inStem also hosts India's first National cryo-electron microscopy facility, which I helped set up.Ran a successful competitively funded research program. Mentored Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows and published many peer-reviewed papers.

Indias Life Science Innovation hub - inStem, NCBS & C-CAMP in GKVK, Bangalore.C-CAMP is today arguably one of the best biotech incubators in India. The goal was to create a center that would help translate academic discoveries to innovations and be the place to create start-ups based on deep science-based innovations in Life Sciences. C-CAMP started with the goal to bridge the availability to accessibility gap in the use of technology in the Life Science research space. Access to correct technology will help catalyze life science research and entrepreneurship. As a co-founder and first CEO, I set up the institution (It is set up as a not-for-profit company in an academic environment), I helped raise funding, and I created an institution that has produced some outstanding startups in Biotech. I also planned and executed a leadership transition that has allowed C-CAMP to grow further and do better after I stepped down.

I was a primary faculty member in the Biochemistry department at the Carver College of Medicine. I had adjunct appointments in the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department and Physiology and Biophysics Department. For the last three years, I also worked as an administrator taking care of all the core research facilities. I also was the Director of the Protein Crystallography Facility. My responsibilities included teaching (graduate and undergraduates) and research.One of the primary achievements was setting up a protein crystallography facility to make protein X-ray crystallography a tool for biologists. I also helped raise private funding to set up a state-of-the-art Life Science NMR facility. As the Assistant Dean of Research working with Prof. Micheal Apicella (Senior Associate Dean for Research), I helped integrate all the core facilities and put management plans for increased access and use of core facilities. Both NIH and NSF funded the laboratory's research, and the work we did on Rieske non-heme iron oxygenases is recognized globally. My research interest in infectious diseases results from my engagement with the University of Iowa Inflammation program.

Research and Teaching at the Molecular Biology Department.