Chaitanya Saxena

My Story:

For my doctoral studies I wanted to carry out quality research and develop myself as researcher. But, I was not sure in which research area or research group I will be able to utilize my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses to further my scientific career. The diverse research areas of faculty members associated with the Biophysics Program at The Ohio State gave me a chance to find a best fit between my personality, career goals and doctoral research. I carried out my doctoral work under the guidance of Dr. Dongping Zhong in the Department of Physics. It was one of the most exciting times in my academic career. The Biophysics Program doctoral thesis committee on the one hand trained me to deeply and systematically engage in scientific inquiry and carry-out cutting-edge research and at the same time gave me an opportunity to work as Teaching Associate that significantly improved my presentation and communication skills. Towards the end of the doctoral program equipped with analytic and problem solving skills, 6+ published research articles and improved soft-skills I got an opportunity to work with Eli-Lilly & Company at Indianapolis. The attitude of 'pushing for maximum', gained at The Ohio State University and Dr. Zhong's Lab continued and at Eli-Lilly & Company I developed several new chemical-biology tools for drug target identification. Later, I founded a biotechnology company Shantani and currently I serve as its Chief Executive Officer. Shantani is developing, commercializing and utilizing a range of proprietary chemical-proteomics technologies that help in discovering new medicines.