Rajesh Kannangai

Currently designation is Senior Professor of Clinical Virology, at Christian Medical College, Vellore which is a NABL accredited Laboratory since 2011 and was the Head of the department from Feb 2015 to August 2020. I am the faculty in charge of the Retrovirus laboratory, which is a National HIV Reference Laboratory (NRL) where serological testing for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus, CD4/CD8 T cell estimation, HIV-1 viral load testing, HIV-1 drug resistance testing and antibody to Human T cell lymphotropic virus is carried out. In-charge of the external quality assurance scheme (EQAS) carried out by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) at CMC since 2002 where in our laboratory oversees the State reference laboratories and ICTC in Kerala and Lakshadweep for the HIV quality management since 2005. I am also the coordinator of the National CMCVIROEQAS program which we established in 2017 and is an accredited program by NABL with ISO 17043: 2010/2023 since 2019. This program is under the aegis of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists (IAMM) in which more than 1000 laboratories across the country participate with both serological and molecular viral markers. I was the department Quality Manager from 2004 to 2015 and an em-paneled Laboratory (NABL) Assessor [ID 1685] for ISO 15189:2012 and ISO/IEC 17043:2010 (PT provider). Till date, assessed more than 150 laboratories for ISO:15189 of which around 40 as lead assessor. Assessed 10 PT Programs as lead assessors for ISO 17043: 2010/2023. My area of research interest is in the immunopathogenesis of infectious diseases with special interest in HIV, Viral STIs, other blood borne pathogens and opportunistic viruses. I have been involved with several intramural and 12 extramural funded research projects, of which 9 have been completed and three are ongoing. I also had the opportunity to be a university examiner for MSc./MBBS/MD/PhD students since 2005 for different universities.

• Kerala, India, 21339 (1993)
• Tamilnadu, India, 55369 (1995)

• 2002 - till date, In-charge National HIV Reference Laboratory (NACO) at CMC
• 2014 - 2017, Member of Institutional Review Board, CMC Vellore
• 2016 - 2020, Associate Editor of Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology (IJMM)
• 2017 - 2020, Member of Technical Expert Committee for strengthening of scientific activities of Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Noida, India
• 2017 - 2020, Members of the Expert Advisory Committee of Institute of Advanced virology, Kerala
• 2018 - till date, Member of technical Expert Committee for strengthening of HIV viral load laboratories in India under NACO, MoH&FW (GOI)
• 2018 - till date, Member of Quality Assurance committee for the HIV-1 Viral load testing, NACO, MoH&FW (GOI)
• 2018 - till date, Member of TRG (Technical Resource Group) for the laboratory services for NACO, MoH&FW (GOI)
• 2018 - till date, Member, Institutional Biosafety committee, CMC Vellore
• 2019 - till date, Joint Secretary and member of needle stick injury review committee HICC, CMC, Vellore
• 2023 - till date, Member, WHO South-East Asia Regional Validation Committee (RVC) of Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B

• Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fellow (FRSTM & H), 2005
• Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, Life member, 2005
• International Association of Medical and Pharmaceutical Virologists, Life Member, 2011

• Rajesh Kannangai, HIV detection and Diagnosis, Fundamental of Global Medicine, Zelalem Temesgen, IHL press, 2009
• Rajesh Kannangai and Gopalan Sridharan, Dehydroepiandrosterone in Human Immunodeficiency virus Infection monitoring and Therapy, DHEA in Human Health and Aging, Ronal Ross Watson, Taylor and Francis Group, 2012
• Rajesh Kannangai and Gopalan Sridharan, Investigations for viral infections in emergency department, Textbook of Emergency Medicine: 1 & 2, Suresh S. David and Anthony F. T. Brown, 2011

• Laboratory guidelines for enumerating CD4 T lymphocytes in the context of HIV/AIDS (WHO revision version 2009)
• Guidelines for HIV diagnosis and monitoring of Antiretroviral Therapy (WHO Revision version, 2009)
• National Guidelines on Quality Management Systems in HIV testing Laboratories 2015, National AIDS Control Organizations 2018 (MoH& FW, GOI)
• Guidelines on Quality Monitoring System for Outsourced Viral load test. National AIDS Control Organizations 2018 (MoH& FW, GOI)
• National Guidelines for HIV-1 Viral Load Laboratory Testing. National AIDS Control Organizations 2018 (MoH& FW, GOI)

• Visited Bhutan as WHO consultant to Review the HIV, HBV, HCV and STI laboratories system, 11/14/23 to 11/22/23
• A Member of WHO Regional Validation Team Visited Sri Lanka for the Validation of Elimination of MTCT of HIV and Syphilis in Sri Lanka, 09/09/19 to 09/16/19
• A Member of the WHO Regional Validation Team Visited Maldives for the Validation of Elimination of MTCT of HIV and Syphilis in the Maldives, 09/08/18 to 09/14/18
• Expert for the Situational Assessment of NRL in Sri Lanka as an expert as a part of PEPFAR’s Regional Technical Assistance on Laboratory Systems Strengthening Supported by CDC/DGHT-INDIA, 07/31/17 to 08/04/17

185 laboratories

• Date of Birth: 05/31/69
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: Indian
• Marital Status: Married

• 1st prize for the poster titled 'Chronic immune activation among treatment naïve HIV/HBV coinfected individuals' presented at the International Science Symposium on HIV and Infectious Diseases 2019., 10/12/19
• The Proficiency Testing Program (coordinator) conducted by the Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, was awarded the First Prize in the third National Proficiency Testing Providers / Reference Material Producers (PTP/RMP) Conclave., 08/30/19 to 08/31/19
• 3rd Prize for the poster entitled 'Demosthenes JP, Fletcher GJ, Zachariah U, Varghese GM, Jeyaseelan L, Abraham P, Kannangai R' at the National Conference conducted at Christian Medical College., 07/21/17 to 07/22/17
• Fr. Lourdu M Yedanapalli S.J. Medal for the year 2013 towards excellence in research by a scientist/physician less than 45 years of age at Christian Medical College, Vellore., 2013
• Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2013-14., 2013-2014
• Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2012-13., 2012-2013
• Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2010-11., 2010-2011

132 publication

Journal Reviewer 8 

• 06/01/22, Senior Professor (Virology), CMC, Vellore
• 03/01/95 to 02/28/98, Registrar (Microbiology), CMC, Vellore, 04/01/98 to 05/31/98, Tutor (Virology), CMC, Vellore, 05/01/98 to 05/31/03, Assistant Professor (Virology), CMC, Vellore, 05/01/03 to 05/31/07, Associate Professor (Virology), CMC, Vellore, 05/01/07 to 06/01/22, Professor (Virology), CMC, Vellore

LABORATORY ASSESSMENT

For NABL

1. As technical assessor for ISO 15189: 2012 about 120 laboratories

2. As Lead assessor for ISO 15189: 2012 52 laboratories

3. As PT Provider technical assessor for ISO 17043: 2010 - 5 laboratories

4. As PT Provider lead assessor for ISO 17043: 2010 - 7 laboratory

AWARDS

1. 1st prize for the poster titled “Chronic immune activation among treatment naïve HIV/HBV coinfected individuals Presented by Demosthenes JP, Fletcher GJ, Zachariah U, Varghese GM, Jeyaseelan L , Abraham P, Kannangai R at the International Science Symposium on HIV and Infectious Diseases 2019 (ISSHID 2019) organized by YRG CARE and Sri Ramachandra Institute of Health and Research held on 12th to 14th October 2019 at Chennai.

2. The Proficiency Testing Program (coordinator) conducted by the Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, [CMCVIROEQAS] was awarded the First Prize in the third National Proficiency Testing Providers / Reference Material Producers (PTP/RMP) Conclave organized by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) held on 30-31 August 2019 at Hyderabad, India.

3. 3rd Prize for the poster entitled “ “Demosthenes JP, Fletcher GJ, Zachariah U, Varghese GM, Jeyaseelan L , Abraham P, Kannangai R at the Clinical Virology – A distinct entity at the Frontiers of Health Care” – National Conference conducted at Christian Medical College on 21.07.17 to 22.07.17

4. Fr. Lourdu M Yedanapalli S.J. Medal for the year 2013 towards excellence in research by a scientist/physician less than 45 years of age at Christian Medical College, Vellore

5. Sachithanandham J, Kannangai R, Pulimood SA, Desai A, Abraham AM, Abraham OC, Ravi V, Samuel P, Sridharan G.Indian J Med Microbiol. 2013-2014 Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2013-14

6. David S, Sachithanandham J, Jerobin J, Parasuram S, Kannangai R. Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2012-13

7. Ramamurthy M, Alexander M, Aaron S, Kannangai R, Ravi V, Sridharan G, Abraham Judged as the best virology paper published in Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology for the 2010-11