Prof Shubhada Chiplunkar Former Director of the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre, Navi Mumbai and the Head of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Research Group at ACTREC obtained her PhD from University of Mumbai (1983) and post-doctoral fellowship from Max Planck Institute, Freiburg Germany. Her specific expertise is in the areas of cancer immunobiology. She has dedicated over 35 years of research career in understanding immune dysfunctions in the tumor microenvironment of cancer patients. She employed this experience in development of immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer using Gamma Delta T cells. As an adviser within a national consortium on therapeutics, she is involved in guiding the development of cell-based therapeutics, including CART cells and other immunotherapeutic modalities.

She has widely published and continues to actively pursue her scientific interests through diverse platforms. She is the member of several scientific advisory and review committees of national research institutes, DBT, DST, BIRAC, ICMR. She has served as Member of the Board of Governors NIPER- A and Academic Council of Universities and as Senate member of IIT-B. She is the President of Immuno-oncology society of India (IOSI) and Mumbai Immunology Group (MIG). At present she is also the member of the Education Committee of International Union Immunological Societies (IUIS).