Prof. P. Kaliraj was born in 1953 to parents from a poor farming community in Virudhunagar district.  From the humble beginning in a remote village to being an accomplished senior most professor in Anna University with enviable national and international reputation, he has raised through typical struggles of a poor village youngster with the dream to get educated in best institutions and achieve great significance in life.  Right from village school to University of Madras for his PG degree and for his Ph.D. degree in the area of Immunotechnology in Nagpur University, he has always worked with a mind to contribute for the immediate needs of the society through academic research. In this regard, Prof.P.Kaliraj has worked in the development of diagnostics for Filariasis.  In fact, he dedicated his life-time to this poor man’s disease and he voices relentlessly for indigenous technology development.  

In the past 30 years, (first few years at the Span diagnostics Ltd. Surat and later at the Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University) he took the full advantage of Biotechnology, right from when the revolutionary new technology emerged in the early 1980s and has developed diagnostic kits using recombinant filarial proteins.  He and his large contingent of research scholars, faculty colleagues, national and international collaborators from reputed academic, industrial and hospitals developed knowledge-base and technology solutions to help combat filariasis and similar infectious diseases.  His award winning commercial kit for rapid detection of filariasis, which has WHO’s approval, is now gaining popularity not only in India but also in Africa.  To replicate this success story, he was instrumental in establishing the first Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in the University set-up.

His work has been published as sixty research articles in reputed International and National journals.  He has mentored thirty four Ph.Ds and guided several M.Tech research dissertations. His application-oriented research in combating filariasis has resulted in two commercial products along with three patents filed. As a member of WHO filarial genome project, he pioneered the development and characterization of several vaccine and drug targets for global elimination of filariasis.  He is a recipient of various awards including the prestigious ones from ICMR and Parasitology Society.  He has been elected as Fellow by Biotechnology Research Society of India and National Academy of Biological Sciences.

Having established the earliest prototype University department and one of the best Centre for biotechnology in the country, as three times its director and twice as the Dean of the prestigious A.C. Tech campus.  He is an astute administrator, resourceful and kind hearted.  He readily helps other departments, institutions, the state and country in many capacities including as member of task force and high power committees of AICTE, UGC, DBT, DRDO, NABL etc., He has been PI and coordinator of many prestigious research grants from NIH, EU, DBT, DST, ICMR, UGC, etc., including DBT’s Centre of Excellence programme and has successfully completed more than 15 research projects to the tune of several crores. He is a pioneer in developing diagnostics focusing on neglected infectious parasitic diseases and established the diagnostic productization platform in Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University.