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Varsha Gaonkar has over 8 years of experience in the biotechnology and bioprocessing industry. Varsha began their career in 2013 as a Quality Assurance Trainee at Tulip Diagnostics (P) Ltd. where they analyzed the viability of products to maintain quality and calibrated equipment every-other-day to ensure the equipment maintenance. In 2015, they moved to the Veterinary Medical Research Institute at Iowa State University as a Laboratory Research Assistant, collaborating with senior researchers on pathology, pathogenesis, and control of infectious and non-infectious diseases in swine. In 2016, they became a Graduate Research Assistant funded by Hydrite Chemical Co., Iowa and tested the efficacy of chemical preservatives for Distiller's Wet Grains, optimizing the efficiency of a new animal feed preservative by adding organic acids and establishing a robust standard operating procedure (SOPs) for assessing the efficiency of the chemical preservative. Also in 2016, Varsha was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Iowa State University, assisting with teaching Biorenewables Systems and Grain Processing and Handling. In 2017, Varsha joined Integrated Micro-Chromatography Systems as a Biomanufacturing Supervisor and Fermentation Specialist, where they maintained product inventory of portfolio of enzymes, supervised and trained biomanufacturing associates/technicians, scaled-up and optimized high-density recombinant bacterial cell production, and designed and developed upstream processes of recombinant protein production from bacterial cells. Most recently, Varsha joined Manus Bio in 2022 as a Fermentation Process Development Engineer.

Varsha Gaonkar completed their Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Biotechnology from KLE College of Engineering and Technology, Belgaum between 2010 and 2014. Varsha also completed an Educational Workforce Development program in Biotechnology from Shreedhar Bhat Laboratory in 2012. Prior to this, they attended Kendriya Vidyalaya from 1998 to 2010. In 2015, they earned their Master of Science (MS) in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from Iowa State University.