After completing an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Government College Kariavattom, India, Dr. Vineesh Indira Chandran moved to University of Wollongong, Australia to pursue Masters in Biotechnology and continued to finish Ph.D under Prof. Marie Ranson, where he mainly focused on the preclinical development and characterization of protein & antibody-drug conjugates. He then completed a short training program in proteomics with Prof. Nurhan Özlü at Koç University, Turkey where he trained on advanced quantitative protocols like PRM, SILAC etc. Dr. Vineesh Indira Chandran then joined the Tumor Microenvironment Laboratory of Prof. Mattias Belting at Lund University for his first Postdoctoral position, where he spent more than 4 years primarily focusing on the application of exosomes as a liquid biopsy tool. His research on a well-defined clinical cohort of around 140 patients led to the identification of Syndecan-1 (proteoglycan) in plasma-derived exosomes that can strongly distinguish high grade glioblastoma from low grade astrocytoma patients. He has also extensively explored and optimized various analytical and quantitative proteomic platforms to characterize extracellular vesicles, particularly exosomes. Besides, he also has found a novel mechanism responsible for resistance to antibody drug conjugates, namely Trastuzumab-Maytansinoid (Kadcyla) that is clinically approved for treatment of advanced metastatic breast cancer patients. Prior to joining University of Southern Denmark, Dr. Vineesh Indira Chandran travelled to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA to continue his Postdoc work to understand the role of exosome-mediated communication in lung metastasis and develop tools for their visualization in vivo. His research interests also include understanding the role of exosomes in immunotherapy and its utility as therapeutic vehicles.
In the current Postdoctoral position at University of Southern Denmark, Dr. Vineesh Indira Chandran will be involved in identifying therapeutic targets and conducting design and development of antibody-drug conjugates against them to tackle the progression of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
