Viralkumar DavraViralkumar Davra is an accomplished biochemist and molecular biologist working currently as a postdoctoral fellow in Raymond Birge's laboratory at the Rutgers University. He has received Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the Rajiv Gandhi University, Bngalore (2008), followed by M.Sc. in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Long Island University (2012) and Ph.D. in Molecular biology and cancer genetics from Rutgers University (2019). He has identified and validated a novel therapeutic target, Mertk receptor, and developed first-in-class anti-Mertk monoclonal antibody in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. The antibody has shown strong anti-tumor efficacy in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors and is currently being developed for clinical trial studies. Further, he has also invented and developed novel Phosphatidylserine (PS) targeting immuno-biologicals (Gas6-IFN fusion proteins) and shown them to be effective as anti-cancer therapeutic in the breast, colon and melanoma mouse models as well as anti-viral therapeutics by using highly infectious influenza mouse model. His work has direct implication in the health care industry with pressing need of highly effective therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases. He has published about 14 peer reviewer publications, filled 2 patents internationally and won 3 prestigious awards during his Graduate study. Read More Read Less