Lankan doctor receives distinguished award
Philanthropist, physician, and gene-therapy developer Dr Sukumar Nagendran received the 'Distinguished Alumni Award' from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University at a gala event held on April 9, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
After completing his high school education at Royal College, Colombo, Dr Nagendran migrated to the United States where he completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Rutgers University and his medical degree at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He subsequently trained in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
After his medical training, he practised internal medicine with a focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He subsequently joined the pharmaceutical industry where he held key leadership positions at Pfizer, Novartis, Daiichi, Sankyo, Reata Pharmaceuticals and Quest Diagnostics.
He was instrumental in building the medical af fairs department at Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest lab/diagnostic providers in the world. He has more than 30-years’ experience in gene therapy development, clinical development strategy, and commercialisation of therapeutic products. He is the President of Research and Development at Jaguar Gene Therapy, and currently serves on numerous boards.
His philanthropic work includes constructing medical facilities, schools, drinking water and sanitary facilities, donating food to the needy in Sri Lanka. He is the sponsor of the Fonseca-Nagendran Scholar award at the American Diabetes Association to enhance research in minority populations and the sponsor of the Jerry Mendell Translational Medicine award at ASGCT.
He has created numerous scholarships for students in Sri Lanka and the United States including the Sukumar and Anne Nagendran International Medical Study Scholarship at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.