Dr. Kannan is an accomplished physician-scientist, computational biologist, and entrepreneur with a distinguished career spanning over three decades, seamlessly integrating clinical expertise with translational cancer research. A proud alumnus of the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, USA, he brings a deep, multifaceted understanding of the tumor microenvironment and the intricate cross-talk between cancer cells and the host immune response. This foundational knowledge has been instrumental in his efforts to develop groundbreaking diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Kannan has pioneered an innovative approach combining autologous CAR-T cells with allogeneic Treg cells to manage immune-related adverse events—such as cytokine release syndrome—associated with CAR-T cell therapy. His current research focuses on AI-enabled drug discovery, particularly within the emerging Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) landscape, to address key proteins involved in the Nonsense Mediated Decay (NMD) Pathway. Driven by a relentless pursuit of innovation, his dream project is the development of personalized neoantigen mRNA cancer vaccines aimed at treating solid tumors.