Dr. Vel Murugan is a trained molecular cell biologist with extensive experience in studying cell cycle regulation, cancer biology, vaccine discovery and development. Dr. Murugan brings with him a wealth of experience from his time in both industry as well as academic institutions. Dr. Murugan earned his PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental research and completed his post-doctoral work at The University of Texas at Austin and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Prior to joining ASU, he worked on the development of attenuated vaccine against Malaria at Sanaria, Inc. He has contributed more than 30 original research publications, reviews and book chapters. At the Center for Personalized Diagnostics, he led a team that developed a high throughput diagnostic test to detect and quantify radiation exposure in humans. His laboratory studies epigenetic changes in response to environmental exposures and develops epigenetic-biomarker based diagnostic tests to detect exposures to toxic chemicals, pathogens, explosives and radiological agents.