Building Global Health Research from India for the World

Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series
Flyer
Dr. Gagandeep Kang
Director, Enteric & Diarrheal Diseases, Diagnostics, and Genomics, Epidemiology, & Modeling, Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Penn Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Lecture (Widener Lecture Hall): 4:30-6:00pm
Reception (The Sphinx Gallery): 6:00-7:00pm

in partnership with the Center for Global Health

[LECTURE SLIDES]

Additional Reading:
Gagandeep Kang on “Unglamorous Diseases,” Global Health, and Lessons from the Indian Experience
India in Transition interview with CASI Managing Editor, Rohan Venkat, October 14, 2024

About the Lecture:
In 1977, the Re-orientation of Medical Education (ROME) scheme was recommended for India to develop doctors who understood the communities in which they worked and reduce the hospital intensive training model. Immersion in rural communities in the early undergraduate medical curriculum resulted in recognition of differences between textbook and referral hospital training and real life. Common problems such as diarrhea and respiratory infections contribute almost 20 percent of mortality in young children but are not considered attractive research foci. Diarrheal disease research in India, including the use of oral rehydration, the development of indigenous rotavirus vaccines and the role of the gut in determining response to infection and vaccination, have led to insights that inform our understanding of the drivers of disease and outcomes. Based on our learnings from India, we have now developed new strategies to explore short- and long-term approaches to improve interventions to reduce diarrhea and promote gut health everywhere in the world.

Speaker:
Dr. Gagandeep (Cherry) Kang
Director, Enteric & Diarrheal Diseases, Diagnostics, and Genomics, Epidemiology, & Modeling, Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Panelists (Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania):
Dr. Glen N. Gaulton
PSOM Vice Dean and Director, Center for Global Health, Professor of Pathology and Lab Medicine

Dr. Sara Cherry
John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science

Dr. Surbhi Grover
Associate Professor of Radiology and Oncology, HUP

Event Flyer

Dr. Gagandeep Kang

Dr. Gagandeep Kang

Dr. Gagandeep "Cherry" Kang is responsible for leading the newly formed team at the Gates Foundation and executing against its three strategic focus areas as Director of Enteric & Diarrheal Diseases, Diagnostics, and Genomics, Epidemiology, & Modeling. Previously, in addition to serving on the foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee, Cherry has been a Professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences, Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, India. She is a physician scientist working on vaccines and public health, particularly focused on children and enteric infectious disease in India. Her research ranges from water and sanitation to vaccines and nutrition, and her team is one of the strongest multidisciplinary research groups in India, internationally recognized and consistently funded by the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health, and more recently, the foundation. While based at CMC for most of her career, she also worked for the Government of India, leading and building India's first translational health science institute. She has served on WHO headquarters, WHO Southeast Asia and Indian committees related to vaccines, covering policies and introductions, and in more technical areas, safety, new product development, modeling and biological standardization. She has been a mentor and guide for women at work and outside of work.

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.