About us

Excited to share about our philosophy, team members, and advisors.

Philosophy

We are building Helex with a mission to serve all patients with a high unmet need in an accessible and affordable manner. All our work is driven by our users - the patients and their families. At Helex, we wish to build more than a business, we wish to build an institution that advances science, technology, and human health.

Team members

Dr. Poulami Chaudhuri

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at TCS Innovation Labs, India

PhD, Molecular Biology, King’s College London

MSc. Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research, King’s College London

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Experience

Nine years of experience in the field of molecular biology and computational biology. Poulami's PhD was focused on peptide-based vectors for siRNA delivery for cancer and gene discovery and her Post Doc explored pre-mRNA splicing mechanisms and their role in disease manifestation, especially in disease areas like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. She holds multiple patents for her algorithms and concepts concerning splicing score-based disease understanding and DNA computing. Poulami worked as a lead scientist for TCS Innovation Labs for six years. She founded Helex bringing her knowledge of the non-coding DNA, 3D genome, and experience with computational biology to fill in the much-needed gap of intelligently understanding gene editing and solving for diseases.

Dr. Poulami Chaudhuri

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at TCS Innovation Labs, India

PhD, Molecular Biology, King’s College London

MSc. Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research, King’s College London

‍

Experience

Nine years of experience in the field of molecular biology and computational biology. Poulami's PhD was focused on peptide-based vectors for siRNA delivery for cancer and gene discovery and her Post Doc explored pre-mRNA splicing mechanisms and their role in disease manifestation, especially in disease areas like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. She holds multiple patents for her algorithms and concepts concerning splicing score-based disease understanding and DNA computing. Poulami worked as a lead scientist for TCS Innovation Labs for six years. She founded Helex bringing her knowledge of the non-coding DNA, 3D genome, and experience with computational biology to fill in the much-needed gap of intelligently understanding gene editing and solving for diseases.

Anirudh Nishtala

Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer

Education

Masters in Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research, King’s College London

M.B.A, Indian School of Business

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Experience

Anirudh brings over ten years of experience in operations and sales in life sciences. He has established a formulations’ vertical from scratch for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company and has led its sales to over $15 million with a future pipeline of over $25 million. He has experience in taking formulations through various regulatory applications across U.S FDA, Europe’s EMA, U.K’s MHRA and others.

Anirudh Nishtala

Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer

Education

Masters in Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research, King’s College London

M.B.A, Indian School of Business

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Experience

Anirudh brings over ten years of experience in operations and sales in life sciences. He has established a formulations’ vertical from scratch for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company and has led its sales to over $15 million with a future pipeline of over $25 million. He has experience in taking formulations through various regulatory applications across U.S FDA, Europe’s EMA, U.K’s MHRA and others.

Rohini Kalvakuntla

Co-founder, Chief Growth Officer

Education

MSc. International Management, King’s College London

MSc. Social Policy & Development Studies, London School of Economics

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Experience

Nine years of healthcare consulting, strategy and business development experience. Rohini has worked extensively with U.S healthcare systems, both providers and payors, to expand the use of capitation payment models of insurance. As a previous VP of Strategy at a chronic care management company, she was responsible for sixty percent of growth with two new product lines for B2B and B2G growth modalities. Prior to that, Rohini led programs to strengthen Public Private Partnerships in healthcare to improve access to services, and maintain high quality of healthcare services in developing countries funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Bank amongst many others.

Rohini Kalvakuntla

Co-founder, Chief Growth Officer

Education

MSc. International Management, King’s College London

MSc. Social Policy & Development Studies, London School of Economics

‍

Experience

Nine years of healthcare consulting, strategy and business development experience. Rohini has worked extensively with U.S healthcare systems, both providers and payors, to expand the use of capitation payment models of insurance. As a previous VP of Strategy at a chronic care management company, she was responsible for sixty percent of growth with two new product lines for B2B and B2G growth modalities. Prior to that, Rohini led programs to strengthen Public Private Partnerships in healthcare to improve access to services, and maintain high quality of healthcare services in developing countries funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Bank amongst many others.

Rakesh Kappagantu

Head of Technology

Education

MBA, Indian School of Business

Bachelor of Technology, JNTU University

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Experience

Ten years experience in product engineering, process engineering, AI/ ML Rakesh brings significant experience of building scalable technologies that have deep impact in the Fintech space with J.P. Morgan Chase. He is adept in conceptualizing business and technology needs, planning and executing, integrating AI/ML and data analytics to augment performance. Rakesh also brings significant management experience having coached, trained and managed technology teams and external vendors.

Rakesh Kappagantu

Head of Technology

Education

MBA, Indian School of Business

Bachelor of Technology, JNTU University

‍

Experience

Ten years experience in product engineering, process engineering, AI/ ML Rakesh brings significant experience of building scalable technologies that have deep impact in the Fintech space with J.P. Morgan Chase. He is adept in conceptualizing business and technology needs, planning and executing, integrating AI/ML and data analytics to augment performance. Rakesh also brings significant management experience having coached, trained and managed technology teams and external vendors.

Dr. Shoko Iwai

VP, Bioinformatics

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at Michigan State University and University of California San Francisco

Ph.D., University of Tokyo, Japan

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Experience

Sixteen years of extensive experience in Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery. Prior to joining Helex, Shoko led omics data analysis teams to analyze multi-omics data with machine learning approaches for drug and biomarker discoveries in inflammatory disease, metabolic disease, autism, and cancer programs. After the postdocs, she served in key roles in several startups including, Second Genome and AI Dynamics to build teams and grow companies. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr. Shoko Iwai

VP, Bioinformatics

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at Michigan State University and University of California San Francisco

Ph.D., University of Tokyo, Japan

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Experience

Sixteen years of extensive experience in Bioinformatics and Drug Discovery. Prior to joining Helex, Shoko led omics data analysis teams to analyze multi-omics data with machine learning approaches for drug and biomarker discoveries in inflammatory disease, metabolic disease, autism, and cancer programs. After the postdocs, she served in key roles in several startups including, Second Genome and AI Dynamics to build teams and grow companies. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr. Neha Gaur

Lead Scientist, Genome Editing

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel

PhD, Molecular Biology, Central Drug Research University, Lucknow, India

MSc. CSJM University, Kanpur, India

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Experience

Five years of experience in genome editing, delivery of genome editing material. Neha brings significant experience in genome editing, in developing proprietary molecular nanomachines for intracellular delivery of genomic materials. She has significant experience in leading programs from scientific conceptualisation, pilot testing to executing proof of concept and pre-clinical studies.

Dr. Neha Gaur

Lead Scientist, Genome Editing

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel

PhD, Molecular Biology, Central Drug Research University, Lucknow, India

MSc. CSJM University, Kanpur, India

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Experience

Five years of experience in genome editing, delivery of genome editing material. Neha brings significant experience in genome editing, in developing proprietary molecular nanomachines for intracellular delivery of genomic materials. She has significant experience in leading programs from scientific conceptualisation, pilot testing to executing proof of concept and pre-clinical studies.

Surendra Tattikota

Senior Scientist

Education

MSc. Biomedical Genetics, Vellore Institute of Technology

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Experience

Twelve years experience in molecular biology, regenerative medicine, cancer biology and neurobiology. Surendra brings extensive experience in working with human embryonic stem cells, their differentiation into various lineages for research and study of disease pathologies. His six year stint at the Centre for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (CTH), University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany was working to understand the molecular and genetic basis of diseases using multiple techniques. Surendra has experience managing teams, handling interdisciplinary collaborations to take projects from conceptualisation to operationalisation.

Surendra Tattikota

Senior Scientist

Education

MSc. Biomedical Genetics, Vellore Institute of Technology

‍

Experience

Twelve years experience in molecular biology, regenerative medicine, cancer biology and neurobiology. Surendra brings extensive experience in working with human embryonic stem cells, their differentiation into various lineages for research and study of disease pathologies. His six year stint at the Centre for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (CTH), University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany was working to understand the molecular and genetic basis of diseases using multiple techniques. Surendra has experience managing teams, handling interdisciplinary collaborations to take projects from conceptualisation to operationalisation.

Dr. Harsha Rohira

Scientist

Education

PhD, Peptide mediated drug delivery, IIT Delhi

Masters in Biotechnology, Panjab University, India

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Experience

Harsha comes with an extensive background in working on ocular diseases, particularly working on novel delivery mechanisms to successfully reach various types of cell types in the eye. She has extensive experience with various cell lines and the murine model of infectious keratitis. At Helex, Harsha contributes to our pre-clinical work and translational R&D.

Dr. Harsha Rohira

Scientist

Education

PhD, Peptide mediated drug delivery, IIT Delhi

Masters in Biotechnology, Panjab University, India

‍

Experience

Harsha comes with an extensive background in working on ocular diseases, particularly working on novel delivery mechanisms to successfully reach various types of cell types in the eye. She has extensive experience with various cell lines and the murine model of infectious keratitis. At Helex, Harsha contributes to our pre-clinical work and translational R&D.

Advisory board members

Dr. David Venables

Ex-president AskBio Europe, Ex CEO of Synpromics, held executive positions at multiple gene therapy companies and CROs. Dr. Venables has over 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical industry in business and product development strategy, with specific expertise in vaccine, gene therapy and cell therapy sectors, and CMO/CRO services. He advises us on our strategy, fundraising, business development, and selection of clinical indications.

Dr. Michael Roberts

Ex- Founder, COO of Synpromics Ltd. who were the pioneers in tissue specific promoters for gene expression. The company was acquired by AskBio, a leading AAV gene therapy platform that ultimately was acquired by Bayer. Dr. Roberts holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is an entrepreneur with over 15 years' experience at Board, CXO and Director level in industry. In addition, he has significant expertise in gene expression; molecular biology, genetic engineering, functional genomics.

Dr. Stephen Chambers

Scientist and innovation specialist with lean startup, business modeling and hands-on company formation experience. Research career spanned biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and life-sciences authoring over 30 scientific articles published in top-tier scientific journals, including Cell and Nature. Entrepreneurial experience as founder (Bio-start), co-founder (Abpro), founding scientist (Vertex Pharmaceuticals) and mentor to multiple early-stage startups and proto-entrepreneurs. Demonstrated record of success and accomplishments in innovation leadership as CEO of the UK’s national innovation & knowledge centre for synthetic biology.

Dr. Sreenivasulu Kurukuti

He advises Helex on the understanding and use of epigenetics in gene editing. He is a pioneer in the space of epigenetics, in nuclear organization of genes and the genome during development, differentiation, and disease. He holds publications of his work in Nature Genetics, and has been instrumental in the co-development of the HiC technique to measure epigenetics better. Dr. Kurukuti is currently the head of Department of Animal Biology in the University of Hyderabad. He has was a post-doctoral fellow at Uppsala Universitet at Sweden and post-doctoral research scientist at Babraham Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Dr. Kuljeet Singh Sandhu

Pioneer in the space of computational biology, advising Helex on the development of the safety analysis platform for estimating long-term safety of a gene editing event. Dr. Sandhu obtained his PhD degree in medicine from Karolinska Institue, Sweden in 2010. He further pursued post-doctoral fellowship at Genome Institute of Singapore and thereafter joined IISER-Mohali in Aug, 2012. He is interested in diverse kind of questions pertaining to genome organization and function, which can be answered within the realm of computational biology. He has over 50 publications in lead journals in the space of functional genomics and bioinformatics.
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