Vijay Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.
President and CEO

Dr. Ramakrishnan has over twenty years of combined experience in protein biotechnology research and biotechnology entrepreneurship.  He is the founder of PIKAMAB, which is the first biotechnology company to rationally stratify patients for the purposes of drug development and patient treatment.  He is the inventor of several patents related to the application of stratified medicine in drug discovery and development, antibody engineering, theragnostics, patient selection and treatment strategies.  He was responsible for identifying, evaluating, and in-licensing crucial patents and technologies from Stanford University, and Hospital for Special Surgery. He is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal, mAbs.  He was a Rotary International Foundation Scholar (’91-94).

He has ten years of experience investigating the microbiology and biochemistry of anaerobic microorganisms isolated from deep sea volcanic vents (hyperthermophiles).  He investigated the mechanisms of thermal stability of these proteins at near-boiling temperatures, and through collaborative efforts, several novel proteins and enzymes were investigated for their commercial applications.  Dr. Ramakrishnan has earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.  As a Post Doctoral Scholar at California Institute of Technology, he continued to work on the structure-function relationships of metalloproteins and membrane proteins.  In addition, he has completed Engineering and Technology Management Programs at Caltech.  He is the founder of Palo Ventures, a healthcare biotechnology venture initiative.