PCL Health announces appointment of respected Independent Medical Advisor, Dr Sanjeev Krishna
PCL Health is delighted to announce today the appointment of its highly-respected independent medical advisor Dr Sanjeev Krishna.
Dr Krishna is Professor of Molecular Parasitology and Medicine at St. George’s, University of London’s Institute for Infection and Immunity. He read Natural Sciences at Cambridge and completed a medical degree at Oxford in 1982. He began studies on malaria as a medical student including clinical studies in the pioneering Wellcome Trust Unit in Thailand. After his general medical training, he returned to laboratory studies and was awarded a DPhil at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. This research laid the foundations for work that Professor Krishna’s group has developed in subsequent decades, by focusing on the potential value of parasite-encoded transport proteins as drug targets, and their contributions to drug resistance. In 1994 he won a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellowship and in 2007 an ScD by Cambridge University.
Professor Krishna’s suggestion that P type cation ATPases would make excellent drug targets has been amply borne out by work on artemisinins and spiroindolones. Recently, the structure of the malarial hexose transporter has confirmed his initial studies that defined it as a new drug target. Professor Krishna’s clinical studies have aimed to optimise the use of existing antimalarials through clinical trials and to develop adjunctive therapies to reduce malaria mortality by studying the pathophysiology of infection. Professor Krishna has collaborated on diagnosis and treatment studies on sleeping sickness and has worked on improving diagnosis of tuberculosis and Clostridium difficile infections. His contributions have been recognised by his election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Commenting on his appointment Dr Krishna said: ‘It is always exciting to support the appropriate development and application of new technologies, particularly when they are so urgently needed to manage global health emergencies. I have worked with PCL Health for a while, so I am delighted to be able to contribute to their efforts to widen access to diagnostics.’
PCL Health CEO Deepti Atrish commented: “We are thrilled to have Dr Sanjeev Krishna as an independent advisor to the business. Dr Krishna brings a wealth of knowledge and understanding of what is required to test out and apply our solution to a range of possible applications from use in long Covid monitoring to inclusion in clinical trials. Dr Krishna’s experience and independent advice will be invaluable to us as we grow and develop the business in new directions in 2021 and beyond”.
