Director

Dr. Manmohan Parida, Outstanding Scientist & Director DRDE, Gwalior is an eminent virologist with three decades of scientific and techno managerial experience in the realm of Medical Virology. He has completed his graduation in Veterinary Sciences from Odisha Veterinary College in the year 1991, Master in Veterinary Virology from IVRI, Mukteswar in the year 1993 and in 2002, awarded Ph.D. Degree in Microbiology from Jiwaji Universtiy, Gwalior. He has also been awarded with Japanese Govt. Scholarship by Min of HRD to work as Monbusho Fellow and also subsequently worked as Post DOC Researcher at Institute of Tropical Medicine, WHO Reference Centre for Research on Arboviruses, Nagasaki University, Japan for 2½ years (from 2002 to 2005).

His core areas of research encompass strategic Biodefence (Biocontainment & Bioverification) R & D with significant contributions in the field of rapid detection technologies, antiviral drug development, new generation vaccine candidates, molecular epidemiology, genotyping, phylogenetic evolution and trafficking of emerging viruses of biomedical importance. He has established National Apex Referral Laboratory for Dengue, Chikungunya, Swine Flu, COVID-19 under National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) & Infectious Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Ministry of Health, Govt. of India. Currently, he is also spearheading the establishment of Maximum Microbial containment complex (BSL4) facility as a National Biodefence Referral Laboratory in the country for mitigation of future biothreat emergencies.

He has established advanced molecular diagnostics based on gene amplification technologies (RT-PCR and RT-LAMP) for large number of viruses viz, Dengue, JE, Chikungunya , West Nile, Swine Flu, SARS-CoV-2. He has the distinction of introducing and popularizing LAMP technology in India. He has also developed RT-LAMP tests for high risk biothreat viral agents viz, Ebola, Small pox, CCHF, KFD, Nipah viruses through synthetic gene based approach. The Swine Flu RT-LAMP technology has been transferred to M/s RAS Life Science and approved by ICMR with DCGI clearance as an alternate indigenous technology to WHO approved CDC RT-PCR. He has also established the Test & Evaluation Facility (Synthetic Blood Penetration, Wet & Dry bacterial penetration, Viral penetration) for testing the Biosuits & Biomasks. In addition, He has also developed field deployable mobile containment laboratory “PARAKH” for rapid on site detection which was also used for testing of COVID-19 samples during the on-going pandemic at Mysore Medical College.

He was member of various Inter-ministerial Task forces (ICMR, ICAR, DBT), Technical and Joint working group (TWG & JWG) committees for formulation of various policy proposals and guidelines including specifications for Establishment of BSL-3 & BSL-4 labs, vaccine for Polio eradication etc. He is a member of Scientific Advisory Committee of ICMR-NIREH, Bhopal and Executive Member of MP Council of Science & Technology (MPCST), Bhopal. Dr. Parida has represented India as technical expert for Biological Weapon Convention (BWC) negotiation of United Nations. He is also Co-Chair of ICMR committee for upgradation of VRDLs under PM-ABHIM and an Expert Member for the DBT Technical Expert Committee on Livestock, Animal and Allied Sciences.

He has published 175 research papers in peer reviewed journals (with overall C.I.-9039, h-Index-49, i10 Index-109) and supervised 8 Ph D students. He has 3 international patents and 13 national patents granted to his credit. He was ranked among top 10 researchers in the field of Immunology & Microbiology as per DST- Elsevier Bibilometric analysis (2009-14). He was also ranked among top 2% of Scientists of the World in the field of Biomedical Research (Virology) as per the 2021 data base prepared by Stanford University, USA. All his sincere efforts have been recognized through various National awards from DRDO (DRDO Scientist of the Year Award, DRDO Technology Group Award), ICMR (Basanti Devi Amirchand Prize), DBT (National Bioscience Award), DST (Technology commercialization Award) and other academic/professional bodies (NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee Award, Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award by Odisha Bigyan Academy, Fellow of Indian Virological Society).