Meet Our Team

Aneesh Thakur, DVM, MVSc, PhD

Aneesh Thakur, DVM, PhD, is an immunologist, Principal Scientist, and Group Leader at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan. He also holds Adjunct Professor appointments with the university’s Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology and the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

At the Laboratory of Vaccine Engineering and Immunology (LVEI), which he established at VIDO in 2022, Dr. Thakur leads interdisciplinary research to develop advanced nanoparticle-based formulations. His work aims to enhance the efficacy of subunit and nucleic acid vaccines, while also investigating novel methods for regulating pulmonary T cell immunity using adjuvants. By merging immunology, drug delivery, and nanotechnology, his lab designs innovative vaccines and adjuvants to combat infectious diseases in both humans and animals.

Dr. Thakur earned his DVM and a Master’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology before working as a research scientist at the Tuberculosis Aerosol Challenge Facility within the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in India. He completed his PhD and initial postdoctoral training in Immunology at the Technical University of Denmark. He then served as an Assistant Professor of Veterinary Microbiology at CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University. Prior to joining VIDO, he completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, where he was later appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy.

Team Members

Karan Razdan

Postdoctoral Fellow
k.razdan@usask.ca
Karan Razdan obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. His research work focused on development, optimization and evaluation of antibiotic loaded lipid nanocarriers and microemulsion for the treatment of bacterial biofilm infected burn wounds. He is a gold medalist in M.Pharmacy and B.Pharmacy from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. He was a Commonwealth split-site (Ph.D.) scholar at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom from 2019-2020 funded by the government of United Kingdom. He has worked in manufacturing of OSDs at Panacea Biotec Ltd. and briefly taught as assistant professor at Chandigarh group of colleges, Mohali, Punjab, India.
Tasson da Costa Rodrigues

Postdoctoral Fellow
ehn598@mail.usask.ca
Tasson da Costa Rodrigues earned his PhD (2023) and MSc (2018) in Biotechnology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. His research work was focused on the development of nanoparticle-based mucosal vaccines for pulmonary immunization against pneumococcus. His expertise includes production and purification of recombinant protein antigen, production of liposomes and other nanoparticles, formulation of dry powder microcarriers, and many in vitro and in vivo techniques. He was also a recipient of the Robert Austrian Research Awards from the ISPPD-12 in 2022 for the development of his work.
Naga Suresh Kola

Graduate student
jze427@mail.usask.ca
Naga Suresh Kola graduated from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany in molecular bioengineering with a research focus on DNA and lipid nanotechnology and notable for characterization of biomolecules. He is honored with a bachelor's degree in pharmaceutical sciences and expertise in the drug development process. His research point of view is that investigating the structural implications of biosystems (nanocarriers) with polyelectrolytes (oligonucleotides) aids in developing technological therapies.
Dhruv Patel

Graduate student
eim546@mail.usask.ca
Dhruv Patel has done his graduation from the Department of Pharmaceutics at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), SAS Nagar, India. His research focused on targeting ligand coated nano drug delivery systems (specifically polymeric nanoparticles) to the tumor sites. He has experience in development and characterization of the nano-formulations. He has completed his Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences from L. M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad, India. He has also worked at Dr. Reddys Laboratories where he developed oral solid formulations.
Anna Martens-Koop

Graduate student
amm814@mail.usask.ca
Anna Martens-Koop completed her Honors Bachelor's of Science (HBSc) in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her Honors project investigated the synergistic biofilm formation of various human-isolated bacterial species. She was an executive member on the Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology Student Association (BMISA) at the University of Saskatchewan in 2022-2023.
Mehmet Nadir Sahinci

Graduate student
wxp732@usask.ca
Mehmet Nadir Sahinci completed his master’s degree in Vaccine Studies at the Vaccine Development, Application, and Research Center at the Ege University, İzmir, Türkiye. His research focused on the design and development of an effective messenger RNA vaccine against Toxoplasma gondii. Additionally, he investigated the expression level differences between wild uridine and nucleoside-modified uridine (N1-methylpseudouridine). Throughout his studies, he gained experience in plasmid DNA design, cloning, in vitro transcription, and various techniques to evaluate mRNA functionality and recombinant protein expression levels.
Alaa Ibrahim

Graduate student
pvy983@mail.usask.ca
Alaa Ibrahim obtained her MSc degree in Nanoscience from University of Zewail City for Science and Technology, and BSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Egypt. Her research studies focused on nanomedicine and development of drug delivery systems for various biomedical applications such as cancer treatment and wound healing. She worked on the development of nanocarriers, polymeric and lipid nanocapsules, nanoemulsions, polymeric nanoparticles, nanofibers and metal-organic frameworks, using different fabrication and characterization techniques during her research work at the university of Zewail City and the American University in Egypt. She was a visiting researcher at Charite University, Berlin where she was trained in the in vitro and in vivo biological assessment of nanoparticles.