Prof. Pawan K. Dhar is the Dean, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and heads an active synthetic biology group. Prior to this he held scientific positions at RIKEN Institute, Keio University and Kyoto University (Japan) Bioinformatics Institute, (Singapore) and Manipal University (India). Prof. Dhar received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi) for his work on Human Genetics. Prof Dhar’s lab holds specialization in making functional proteins from non-expressing DNA sequences leading to the development of a potentially groundbreaking drug discovery platform. Prof. Dhar serves in the external board of referees for European Science Foundation and Indian Government science funding agencies.