Nivedita Gupta

Dr. Nivedita Gupta is a medical scientist trained in virology, epidemiology and vaccinology and is currently heading the Division of Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. She has 18 years of work experience in viral infections and vaccines and has been instrumental in setting up the virus research & diagnostic laboratory (VRDL) network of ICMR. This network of 155 labs was established subsequent to the 2009 pandemic influenza outbreak and has taken virus detection capacity to almost all parts of the India. Dr Gupta has been instrumental in augmenting testing capacity for COVID-19 in India. From a single laboratory in January 2020, now there are more than 3300 laboratories. She has steered laboratory expansion by laying down the SoPs for establishing molecular virology labs and has closely worked with public and private laboratories for implementing quality testing protocols. She is the key person to prepare the validation protocols and bring in multiple testing platforms in India. She spearheaded the program to upscale the development and validation of indigenous molecular diagnostics for COVID-19 in India which resulted in a 50 fold cost reduction. She coordinated R&D and clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in India including Covaxin, Covishield and Covovax. Dr. Gupta has significantly contributed towards strengthening the public health surveillance and diagnostic capacity of viral infections in India especially related to arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis & Zika), Influenza, Measles Rubella, enetroviruses etc. She was part of the team who worked extensively on deciphering the etiology and develop management guidelines for acute encephalitis syndrome in different parts of India. She has also been working towards sustaining the Polio free status of India. She has also worked extensively for prevention, containment and research on Nipah virus disease in India. She has more than 140 peer reviewed publications to her credit.