Meet Parag Mahanti, PhD

Parag Mahanti is a recipient of BTI’s 2019 Early Career Award. He obtained his PhD in Frank Schroeder’s lab here at BTI from 2008-2013, during which he also spent a year as a volunteer intern at Cornell’s patenting and licensing office, CCTEC. Since then, he has held positions as a Life Sciences Strategy Consultant at the IMS Health Consulting group and as a Biotechnology Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies and Barclays. At present Parag is an Associate Director within the Access and Commercialization Strategy team at Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Schroeder described Parag’s time at BTI in this way:
“Parag has proven himself as a highly skilled scientist, excellent communicator, and highly respected mentor of undergraduate and junior graduate students, and he has continued his engagement and role as a mentor for students and postdocs at BTI since he left campus … A sharp observer, Parag combines experimental skill with an outstanding ability for data analysis and review, which provided the basis for his research success. His research in my lab was highly productive and has so far resulted in nine published papers, many in high-impact journals.”

Parag’s skill at communicating science and engendering productive discussion led Frank to send his student to give talks about the lab’s research at major international meetings. Parag also initiated new research collaborations with groups at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Imperial College in London, McGill University in Montreal, MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and UCSF in San Francisco. He also was a founding member of the Graduate Association of Chemistry, co-chaired the Finance Commission of the Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and led operations for the Cornell Graduate Consulting Club.

Since leaving BTI, Parag has also emerged as a leader facilitating industry–academic interactions. He has been a speaker or participated in career panels at Cornell, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NYC-INET and at the 2017 BTI Alumni Career Symposium. And since 2015, Parag has been in charge of organizing the US–India BioPharma & Healthcare Summit at Cambridge, MA. Currently Parag is also serving as a mentor for the Entrepreneurship Lab launched by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to provide mentorship to biotech/health-tech start-ups.

To sum up in Dr. Schroeder’s own words:
“Parag has an exceptional record connecting biotechnology and healthcare-focused industrial interests with academia, with a strong commitment to mentorship and communicating to students and postdocs at BTI and Cornell. I am certain that Parag will continue to contribute to mentorship at BTI and strengthening connections with the life sciences industry.”