Our International Advisory Panel

Dr. Brian Kobilka
Dr. Steffen Leonhardt
Dr. Raj Murali
Dr. James Musick
Dr. Venkatraman Sadanand
Dr. Vikas Sukhatme
Dr. Albert Van Der Zwan

Dr. Brian Kobilka

Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Brian Kobilka is professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his path-breaking work on the structure and function of cell-surface molecules known as G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs). His research contributed to profound advances in cell biology and medicine, and approximately 50% of all drugs manufactured today make use of his work.

Dr Kobilka received a BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and an MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri and then was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Dr. Steffen Leonhardt

Chair for Medical Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University
Dr. Steffen Leonhardt holds a M.S. in Computer Engineering from SUNY at Buffalo, NY, USA, a Dipl.-Ing. and a Dr.-Ing. degree in Control Engineering from Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, and a Dr. med. from the Medical School of Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. He was appointed Head of the Philips Chair of Medical Information Technology at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany in 2003, and a full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology in 2006. His research interests include physiological measurement techniques, personal health care systems and feedback control systems in medicine.

Dr. Leonhardt established the Medical Acoustics and Neurosensing Lab, which focuses on patient monitoring, wearable technologies for healthcare, and telemedicine. He has made significant contributions to the development of advanced patient monitoring and medical imaging systems. He is a recipient of prestigious honors such as the Philips Research Prize, and is an active member of professional societies like the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT).

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Dr. Raj Murali

Consultant, Wrightington Hospital
Dr Raj Murali is a consultant at Wrightington Hospital, UK, specialising in shoulder, elbow, hand and wrist problems. He is currently a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and London. He has published several peer-reviewed papers and has presented at regional, national and international events.

Dr. Murali’s research areas include the clinical outcomes following hand surgery, rehabilitation of the injured hand, surgical management of ligament injuries of the wrist, design of new instrumentation and control of complex trauma to the wrist.

In June 2022, he was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the National Health Services of the United Kingdom.

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Dr. James Musick

Lead, Personalized Healthcare Team, Roche
Dr James Musick leads the Personalised Healthcare team at Roche, a global pharmaceutical giant. He spearheads the programs that enable Roche to deliver the next generation of healthcare, overseeing the convergence of science, data and technology to provide transformational patient care.

Dr Musick holds a B.S. in Genetics and a PhD in Neuroscience, which ignited his passion and path into Personalised Healthcare.

To complement his academic, data and technology experience, Dr Musick then worked for several years in Silicon Valley to master approaches for combining technical features with user-centred design, creating useful, desirable, and commercially successful products.

Dr Musick is well known for helping biotech, pharma and health sciences companies innovate with new approaches ranging from translational medicine and clinical trials to marketing, communications, and digital health. These efforts included driving the creation of the Digital Medicines unit at Novartis with a focus on deploying in-market solutions globally across all therapeutic areas.

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Dr. Venkatraman Sadanand

Associate Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Loma Linda University
Dr. Venkatraman Sadanand obtained his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1978. He then completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in Economics at the California Institute of Technology, obtaining his doctorate in 1983. He was an accomplished Professor of Economics for more than a decade, with a keen involvement in research and education. He received a number of awards for teaching, and published extensively in the area of Game Theory and Economic Competition in leading Economics journals including the Journal of Economic Theory.

Driven by his deep-seated desire to serve others in a direct capacity, Dr. Sadanand threw himself fully into medical studies and completed the M.D. program at the University of Toronto, chose the field of Neurosurgery, and then went on to subspecialize in the discipline of Pediatric Neurosurgery and epilepsy. He continues to teach and perform surgeries at hospitals in Canada, India and USA, while grooming the next generation of neurosurgeons. Currently, his research focus is in the areas of Brain-Computer Interface, Biology of Brain Tumors, Brain Plasticity, Signal Processing to develop a 3-D map of the brain, and Health Economics. He has also been an innovator in the development of new surgical techniques, especially in the surgical and post-surgical treatment of epilepsy. As an entrepreneur, Professor Sadanand is also the Founding Chairman of the Board and CEO of HouseCallsNow Inc.

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Dr. Vikas Sukhatme

Professor of Medicine and Dean, Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Vikas Sukhatme is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Medicine and Dean, Emory University School of Medicine. He is also Chief Academic Officer of Emory Healthcare and previously Chief Academic Officer of Harvard Medical School.

Dr Sukhatme has an extensive background in collaborative research and is a strong proponent of translational medicine. His focus is on removing barriers to medical innovation and finding new and meaningful ways to integrate research into education and patient care with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes worldwide.

Dr Sukhatme completed a Bachelor’s and doctorate (ScD) in theoretical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by an MD in the Harvard-MIT program at Harvard Medical School in 1979. He completed his residency in medicine, a clinical
fellowship in nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Fellowship in immunology from Stanford University.

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Dr. Albert Van Der Zwan

Director of Neurosurgery, UMC University Medical Center

Dr Albert Van Der Zwan is the Director of Neurosurgery at UMC University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands and a Professor at the Utrecht Medical School, Netherlands. A physician-scientist with a PhD in physics, Dr Zwan is an expert in intracranial aneurysms, Spine Research and
Surgery, Brain tumours, Neuroanatomy and Neuro-Oncology. His meticulous experimental work brought out the variability of major cerebral arterial territories.

Combining technology with medicine he is a co-developer of ELANA (Excimer laser- assisted non-occlusive anastomosis), a novel anastomosis tool. He combines surgical skills and clinical research with aplomb and is the author of more than 100 research publications in top-notch neurosurgical journals. He has been a collaborator with IIT Madras.

His background as a physician-scientist will be valuable for the Department of Medical Sciences & Technology.

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