Management Team


Dr. Balaram Patro, Ph.D.

Balaram Patro is the Chief Executive Officer of GRK Research Laboratories. He has over 25 years of extensive experience in synthetic chemistry, scientific management and operations. He has held several leadership roles in Indian contract research organizations.

Patro was the Head of Chemistry Services at GVK Biosciences and instrumental in building GVK Biosciences as the Asia’s leading contract research organization. He worked with more than 100 international clients in the field of Drug Discovery research, agro research, material science as well as large scale synthesis.

After receiving his PhD in Chemistry from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India, he joined an Indo French collaborative project DNA Topoisomerase I inhibitors and then moved to Universität Konstanz, Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow to work in the area of carbohydrate chemistry. He also worked at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in the field of radical chemistry, development of green reagents and total synthesis of Vinblastine and Vincristine class of alkoloids.

Patro published around 40 original research articles in international journals and active in academic research with several PhD students registered under his guidance.

Dr. N. S. Kameswara Rao, Ph.D.

Dr. N. S. Kameswara Rao is a Director – Research and business development at GRK Research Laboratories. He has 20 years of experience in design and synthesis of small molecules. He is expert in isolation and characterization of Natural products, synthetic organic chemistry, custom synthesis, Building blocks synthesis, impurity synthesis, reference compounds and library synthesis.

Prior to joining GRK Research Laboratories, Kameswara Rao worked in GVK Biosciences as an Associate Director and managed several US, Euorope and Asian clients serving their chemistry needs.

Kameswara Rao received his Ph. D in Natural products chemistry from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam and moved to Indian Institute of Science for his postdoctoral studies in synthetic organic chemistry. Later he continued his postdoctoral studies in synthetic organic chemistry in Taiwan for 4 years followed by another 4 years in USA. He published several original research articles in international journals.

Dr. Ramu Surakanti, Ph.D.

Dr. Ramu Surakanti is a Principal Scientist at GRK Labs. He has more than 16 years of work experience in contract research organizations in designing and synthesizing small molecules. He is expert in synthetic organic chemistry, custom synthesis, Building block synthesis and library synthesis.

Earlier he worked in Sai Life sciences, GVK Biosciences as a Scientist and led a team of 20 chemists to serve the chemistry needs of several clients across the globe. During his tenure in GVK, he completed his Ph. D in Asymmetric synthesis and developed new synthetic methodologies to accomplish several chiral bicyclic lactams which can be employed as scaffolds for various natural products.