Prof. Rajendra Pilankatta joined International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi as postdoc in 2005, after the completion of his PhD degree in Biochemistry in the area of Biochemical Toxicology from Osmania University, Hyderabad. At ICGEB, he got research training in the area of tetravalent vaccine development against dengue virus using adenovirus as a vaccine delivery vector under the mentorship of Prof. S. Swaminathan. During this period, he had an opportunity to involve in the dengue diagnostics development using NS1 protein. The vaccine research was well cited and helped to create a platform to develop tetravalent chimeric epitope against dengue virus. He joined as postdoc in Prof. G. Inesi lab at CPMCRI, San Francisco, USA and did studies on P-Type ATPase by delivering the gene by adenovius vectors (2007-2010). Following this, he expanded his research in the area of antiviral drug discovery against dengue virus, as a senior postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA under the guidance of Dr. Priscilla Yang (2010- 2011). During this period, his research work was mainly involved on the mechanism of action of bioactive lipids against dengue viruses. The work gave significant insight into the action of these lipid based drugs against various RNA viruses. After obtaining sufficient research training, he moved back to his hometown Kasaragod, and joined as Asst Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Central University of Kerala (2011). During his service at CUK he received prestigious Raman Fellowship from Govt of India to continue studies in the area of anti-viral drug development and joined as visiting faculty at Prof. Padmanabhan’s lab, Georgetown University, Washington DC (2014-2015). He re-joined CUK as Associate Professor in 2016 . He continues his research work on biochemical and molecular characterization of dengue virus replication complex and ADE of viruses. He was invited as Visiting Associate Professor by DUKE-NUS during 2017 and also serves as an expert member for the development of Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV) being set up at Trivandrum, Kerala. During COVID19 outbreak, he took leadership and extended his research lab for the COVID19 RTPCR testing for the entire community of the Kasaragod District after obtaining approval from ICMR and University, since March 2020. He also played key role in the genetic surveillance of SARSCoV2 in collaboration with the Dept of Health, Govt of Kerala. Currently, he is in charge of COVID19 RTPCR testing lab and completed more than 3 lakhs test so far. He served the university under various academic and administrative capacities such as Dean, School of medicine and public Health,  HOD of Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director of Research, Registrar, Nodal Officer - NIRF and Local coordinator- GIAN etc. Also, he played major role in setting up of Institute of Advanced Virology at Trivandrum as core committee member.