other specialisation , Immunological Memory , Infectious Disease , and Vaccine
About
Sarat K Dalai, PhD is a trained immunologist with 23 years of research experience in infectious disease immunology and immunomodulation. He is teaching Immunology and Vaccinology to Masters? students since 2011. Following his undergrad in Physics (Hons) from Utkal University in 1990, he was graduated from JNU with MSc (Biotechnology) in 1992 and PhD (Immunology) in 1998. After pursuing a stint of 12 years research career in USA at NIH, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for US Military Malaria Vaccine Development program, he returned to India on invitation and joined the Institute of Science, Nirma University in 2011.
Currently his laboratory at the Institute of Science is working on generation and maintenance of memory T cells vis-a-vie vaccine development. While the major focus of the research is to understand the CD 8T cell responses to Plasmodia liver stage infection, his laboratory is also working on developing alternative strategy for making effective vaccines to provide long term protection against various diseases. A part of the efforts of his lab is also devoted to develop chimeric biomolecules for novel vaccine adjuvant and to treat cancer through immunotherapy. Out of 14 PhD students enrolled with him for PhD degree, eight students have been graduated, while six students are pursuing their research work. His research is financially supported by the Dept. of Biotechnology & Dept. of Science & Technology (Govt. of India); Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission, & GUJCOST (Govt. of Gujarat).
Although running the Institute of Science as its head since July 2011, Dr Dalai is a passionate researcher and teacher having strong belief in changing the society through scientific endeavors by motivating younger generation of students. He is also Principal Investigator of DPRP-Grant (worth 50 million INR) sponsored by DST, Govt. of India for developing a national facility for characterization of Biotherapeutics/Biosimilars.
