Dr. Ketan Thorat

Biography

Ketan Thorat, PhD, works on the governance of space biology and orbital biomanufacturing, with a focus on biosafety, biosecurity and planetary protection. He heads the Regulatory Compliance Office at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (BRIC-inStem), Bangalore, and is Track Lead for Policy, Regulation and Standards on India’s white paper on a National Strategy for Orbital Biomanufacturing and the Space Bioeconomy (2026-2040).

He has taught planetary biosecurity, covering the biosafety, biosecurity, ethics and governance of space biology, to engineers at ISRO’s Human Space Flight Centre. He was a panellist at the webinar on funding, regulatory pathways and policy frameworks for in-space biomanufacturing hosted by the Centre of Excellence Space Tech Foundation, Government of Karnataka. His paper on building the rules for space biomanufacturing is under review with the Observer Research Foundation.

His science diplomacy experience comes from India’s Department of Biotechnology (2019-2022), where he led a portfolio of about INR 2 billion a year across 18 countries and managed over 100 bilateral research collaborations. He negotiated the India-EU Strategic Partnership roadmap to 2025 and the India-UK 2030 Roadmap on the Department’s behalf. He has since written on Indian science diplomacy and on technology, diplomacy and global health from the Global South (AAAS Science & Diplomacy), and on the Biological Weapons Convention (Health Security).

He is a 2024 United Nations Youth for Biosecurity Fellow (UNODA), a 2024 India Biosecurity Fellow and an invited member of the DNA Synthesis Screening Consortium. He holds a PhD from BRIC-inStem and a Master’s in Biotechnology from IIT Bombay.