Profile
Pavan Asalapuram is a pharmacist by education from Madras Medical College, but turned to a molecular biotechnologist by PhD training from Anna University. He did Postdoctoral training to develop novel diagnostic methods for infectious diseases at Royal Institute of Technology-KTH, Stockholm University and Karolinska University. However, a master’s program in Hospital and Healthcare Management at Loyola Institute of Business Administration has triggered Pavan’s interest to develop cost-effective but reliable health-care solutions. His interest for providing simple solutions to the complex techniques has led to the development of 5 diagnostic platforms: fluorescence-based liquid tests to identify bacterial drug resistance, antibody-based lateral flow tests for enteric pathogens, colorimetric assay for intestinal pathogens, Bioluminescence tests for hygiene and early-stage infections, Rolling circle amplification-coupled lateral flow tests for Tuberculosis. All these techniques are usable at resource-limited clinical setups and provide confirmatory diagnostic results within 10-60 min i.e., the patient can get appropriate antibiotic treatment from the first clinical contact and reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance. Pavan has published about 25 peer-reviewed scientific articles and holds 3 international patents in biomedicine. Pavan has developed successful collaborations between researchers, clinicians, policy makers and WHO Tuberculosis laboratories in Europe and Asia. Together his peers, Pavan has founded of two companies, ApiRays AB and EMPE Diagnostics AB that develops confirmatory diagnostics and operates biomedical activities from Karolinska Institute Science Park, Sweden.