Gagandeep Kang interview: Lessons from researching an ‘unglamourous’ disease

Diarrhoea, as Dr Gagandeep Kang often says, tends to be considered a “solved problem”. Modern science knows why it happens, knows how to fix it, and has ways of preventing it from becoming a genuine medical threat. And yet it continues to be a major cause of death or serious illness for hundreds of thousands of children around the world, every year.

Kang has spent decades attempting to tackle this troubling dichotomy. Her work at Christian Medical College, Vellore, as well as many other levels of India’s health-research ecosystem, led to the development and widespread use of two Indian rotavirus vaccines, pioneering research on infectious diseases and cost-effective ways of monitoring disease burden across the Indian population.

In 2024, Kang was awarded the prestigious Gairdner Global Health Award for building “an internationally recognised and competitive research programme centered in India that prioritises Indian needs while providing valuable and translatable insights to other regions affected by enteric infections” as well as being an “exemplary leader” in the field.

In her current role as Director for Global Health at the Gates Foundation, Kang has been building on her work on enteric and other infectious diseases in India, while also using insights developed there to help build programmes in other countries...

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