Dr. Bikul Das is the founder Director of KaviKrishna since 2010. Dr. Bikul Das is an oncologist and stem cell researcher. After completing medical training in India, he did PhD in Oncology at the prestigious Institute of Medical Science- University of Toronto in the year 2007. He has pioneered research in stem cell altruism, an emerging field in biological altruism that challenges the dogma of Darwin’s evolutionary theory to explain diseases like cancer and tuberculosis. He has been practicing medical oncology through his telemedicine center in the famous silk village Sualkuchi, Assam, his birth place, as well as starting place of his medical research career since 1994. Dr. Bikul Das has identified altruistic behavior of embryonic stem cell for the first time at Stanford University in the year 2012. Immediately, he has started a stem cell research laboratory named ‘KaviKrishna Laboratory’ by renting a space at Guwahati Biotech Park, IIT-Guwahati to make India the leader in altruistic stem cell research. In the year 2013, KaviKrishna Laboratory reported the role of stem cell altruism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis dormancy. The report was published in leading journal of Science ‘Science Translational Medicine’. Since then the Laboratory across the world confirmed Dr. Das’ initial finding. To continue with the stem cell research at KaviKrishna Laboratory, Dr. Das moved from Stanford University to Forsyth Institute, a Harvard University affiliated research center. During 4 years at Forsyth, Dr. Das guided 4 PhD students both at Forsyth and KaviKrishna Laboratory to work on stem cell altruism. In the year 2018, Dr. Das started an independent laboratory ‘Thoreau Laboratory for Global health’ at Boston, where his PhD students are continuing with the research in direct collaboration with KaviKrishna Laboratory. Recently, in July, 2019 both his laboratories reported that cancer stem cell hijack the mechanism of altruistic stem cell; the work was published in Cancer Research, a leading journal in the cancer field. Now, Dr. Bikul Das and his 4 PhD students from both the labs are studying further mechanism of stem cell altruism by developing organ on chip device, which might give a new direction in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic of cancer and infectious diseases like Tuberculosis.
Dr. Das’ work has been funded by National Institute of Health (NIH)-USA, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Laurel foundation-California and angel investor like Deter Beer of Canada. He has received numerous awards including young investigator award-Stanford University, Harold John Edward award- Canadian Cancer Society, Schweisguth award- International Society for pediatric oncology (SIOP, Netherland), Scholar in training award-American Association of Cancer Research, Hind-Rattan Award- Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Society, New Delhi, Grand Challenge award- Bill Gates foundation, Junior Investigator Award- DPLM, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Antioxidant Squalene research grant- Isshogenki International, Hong-Kong and Excellence in Medicine award-Assam Down Town University, Assam. He has delivered about 30 invited talks in international seminars/conference/Universities in about 15 countries.
He has published 75 papers and abstracts in leading international journals and conference proceedings. He also wrote two books and three book chapters. Through his telemedicine care at Sualkuchi, Assam, he has given free consultancy/care to more than 500 cancer patients since 1994 and conducted numerous cancer awareness camps in Assam.