Mahendra S. Rao, MD, PhD

Ceo panCELLa & Consultant-Regenerative Medicine

Mahendra Rao  received his MD (MBBS) from Bombay University in India and his PhD in Developmental Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology. Mahendra Rao is internationally known for his research involving human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and other somatic stem cells and has  worked in the stem cell field for more than twenty years with stints in academia, government and regulatory affairs and industry. Dr. Rao   has an extensive background teaching medical and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows at institutions including The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, The National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, and the University of Utah School of Medicine.  Dr. Rao has published more than 350 papers on stem cell research and is the co-founder of a neural stem cell company Q therapeutics based in Salt lake City (Utah) and more recently  NxCell based in California.

Until 2010 Dr. Rao led the Stem Cell and Regnerative Medicine division at LiFE Technologies and also served as the Chair of the CBER (FDA) advisory committee (CTGTAC). Dr. Rao serves on several scientific advisory boards to Pharma, journal editorial boards and oversight committees and advisory panels on large scale projects related to stem cell biology. Dr. Rao has served  and continues  on the Boards of several  stem cell and regenerative medicine companies such Stempeutics, CESCA, CBR and Megakaryon. Dr Rao has also served on advisory panels  to the governments of the U.S., Singapore and India on hESC and iPSC policy.  He continues to work with the FDA and other regulatory authorities on PSC related issues most recently as the CIRM and ISSCR liaison to the ISCT.

Dr. Rao was the founding  Director of the NIH Center of Regenerative Medicine  and also the Chief of the Laboratory of Stem cell Biology at the NIH. Dr. Rao ongoing efforts are  focused on translational work related to Parkinsons disease and glial cell pathology.  Dr. Rao is an adjunct  faculty member at Wake-Forest Center For Regenerative Medicine and the VP of Strategic Affairs at Q therapeutics.  He also serves as a consultant on  Regenerative Medicine for the New York Stem Cell Foundation and continues to provide consultant and advisory services to biotechnology companies in the regenerative medicine field.  Dr. Rao was recently named one of the top ten influential people in the stem cell field and was honored recently by the Federation of Biologists  (FABA) India for his achievements in the stem cell field and awarded the NBRI medal (India) for his contributions to neuroscience research.