Vasantha Muthuswamy ([email protected])

Dr Vasantha Muthuswamy retired as Senior Deputy Director General and Chief of the Division of Basic Medical Sciences, Traditional Medicine & Bioethics, and Division of Reproductive Health & Nutrition from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Delhi in 2008, after three decades of service in different capacities. A post-graduate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, she joined ICMR as a Talent scholar.

A WHO Fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington DC, she is recognised for her contribution in bringing out ICMR’s Ethical guidelines for biomedical research on human subjects in 2000, and the revised version Ethical guidelines for research on human participants in 2006. She also coordinated the Guidance document for Animal experimentation, Guidelines for Stem cell research and therapy, Guidelines for Safety evaluation of food derived from GE plants and Guidelines for Good Clinical laboratory practices, etc. As the Founder Secretary of Forum for Ethics Review Committees in Asia Pacific(FERCAP), she has attended Bioethics and GCP workshops in more than 30 countries. Dr Vasantha has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Society for Clinical Research, the National Bioethics Conference, FERCAP, and Yenepoya University. She is currently President of FERCI (Forum for Ethics Review Committees in India). The National ethical guidelines for biomedical and health research involving human participants, 2017, have been prepared under her chairmanship.

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