Rewriting Healthcare: Dr. Kalyan Uppaluri On AI, Genetics, And India’s Preventive Future

Pharma Now: Today at Pharma Now, we welcome Dr Kalyan Uppaluri. Doctor, you started as a medical practitioner. Our audience would love to understand what this startup is about and how your journey moved from clinical medicine into genomics and AI-driven healthcare.

Dr. Kalyan: It has been a fascinating journey. I’m from India, born and raised in Hyderabad, and I completed my medical education at Gandhi Medical College. After graduating, I married my classmate, and we moved to the US together.

There, I did my residency in general medicine. Life often takes unexpected turns, and I found myself drawn toward academics. I became faculty at a medical school in North Carolina. That was when my interest in genomics began to evolve into a focused area.

At the time, most physicians had little exposure to genomics. It was largely seen as part of biotechnology or molecular biology rather than a clinical discipline. Around then, my mentor, Dr Michael Snyder from Stanford, and his lab began developing courses for physicians to understand how genomics could be brought to the bedside. The idea was to translate this technology into everyday clinical practice.

After completing my MD and while working full-time as a faculty member, I pursued another master’s degree. That was when I realised this is where medicine needed to evolve. Healthcare today is largely reactive. We don’t take care of our health until illness appears.

We treat symptoms rather than root causes. Patients come in with a problem; we manage it, and the cycle repeats. A good physician should focus on prevention, not just symptom management. That philosophy is what drew me toward this field and eventually toward building something in this space.

At that point, I had a couple of options: either join a large US biotech company or return to India to try to build something here. Honestly, I was leaning toward a corporate role, but my wife strongly felt we should go back and attempt something meaningful in India.

We had a tenured faculty position and stability in the US, but she was very clear that this was the right time to act. So in 2019, we moved back and founded GenePowerRx. When we started, most genomic research data globally was based on Caucasian populations, with very little representation from India.

We simply didn’t have enough sequencing data from Indian patients. That creates a repeating cycle; limited data leads to limited insights, which affects prevention and care. We asked ourselves: how do we bring this knowledge to India and break that cycle? That question is what ultimately led to the creation of the company.

Pharma Now: But how do you know India lacks genomic data?

Dr. Kalyan: In genomic research, population-level sequencing was, at that time, being conducted seriously in only a few countries. In the UK, for example, the NHS, the government healthcare system, launched a major initiative in 2015 to sequence large sections of its population.

Today, they have data from nearly 20 lakh people, and significant research is being built on that dataset. Many future medicines will be developed using insights derived from this information. We wanted to create something similar from an Indian perspective because, although we are all human at the genetic level, subtle variations shaped by evolution exist.

Diabetes in a Caucasian population is not the same as diabetes in an Indian population, and this has been proven multiple times. For instance, if you take 100 diabetic patients from a Caucasian population, around 40 to 50 per cent may develop kidney damage. In India, out of 100 diabetic patients, only about 10 show similar kidney complications. That means treatment standards cannot be identical.

The therapeutic goals and approaches used in one population cannot simply be applied to another; we need population-specific understanding. India has a massive amount of clinical data because of its sheer patient volume. We are often called the diabetes capital of the world or the hypertension capital of the world simply due to numbers. That clinical data exists across government hospitals and research institutions.

However, most of it remains at the clinical level. We still lack genomic-level datasets. To truly personalise treatment, we must identify these genetic differences and develop algorithms tailored to Indian populations.

Pharma Now: It’s often said that prevention is better than cure. It’s fascinating to learn how future disease risks can be identified early and managed by using data. That feels incredibly powerful and helpful.

Dr. Kalyan: You’ve raised a very important point. Many people think, “I’m living a good life right now, why would I want to know what might happen later?” That mindset is one of the biggest challenges.

This is not about predicting that someone will definitely develop a disease in five years. What we are saying is this: you may be carrying a loaded gun in the form of your genes, but you don’t have to pull the trigger.

The trigger could be your diet. It could be stress management. It could be physical inactivity or the type of food you eat. Genetics might indicate that you have a higher risk of a certain condition, but lifestyle factors determine whether that risk actually translates into disease. Our goal is to help people avoid pulling that trigger.

If someone is 25 today and begins taking care of themselves now, they might delay the onset of diabetes from 45 to 60. That difference is enormous. Developing diabetes at 45 versus 60 completely changes long-term management, complications, and quality of life.

There is also epigenetics, how environmental exposure, toxins, and chronic stress affect how genes behave. Stress itself is unavoidable, but people should understand what is happening inside their bodies and what warning signs to watch for. What we are really bringing to the table is awareness and a predictive way of evaluating risk.

Another area where we’ve made strong progress is pharmacogenomics. This field, well established in the West, emphasises that not every medicine works the same way for every person. We need to understand those biological differences before prescribing treatment.

After six years, the journey hasn’t been easy, but we’re proud to have introduced new technology and practical solutions in India. One of our biggest achievements has been reducing costs. India is an extremely price-sensitive market. A test that might cost around ₹60,000 in the US can be done here for about ₹5,000.

That’s something we are especially proud of: making advanced genomic testing accessible to everyday people, not just the wealthy.

Pharma Now: That’s really impressive. This idea was already being used in other countries, and you decided to bring it to India, together with your wife. One of the most striking aspects is the cost difference.

Dr. Kalyan: Yes, about five to ten per cent of what it would cost in the US.

Another important point is that your genes don’t change. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime test. You get it done once, and the data stays with you forever.

For example, many people spend around ₹10,000 every month on medicines. Instead, they could do a ₹5,000 test that gives lifelong insights. That information might help reduce the number of drugs they need, or even avoid some altogether.

We launched this through hospitals. Dr. Nageshwar Reddy has been a tremendous supporter and formally introduced the program. He even mandated testing for patients coming to the hospital because he wanted prescriptions to be precise, have fewer side effects, and actually work.

That is how we are taking advanced science to the masses, through scale, volume, and real clinical integration. Because we work at volume, we can reduce costs and deliver results efficiently. This kind of testing is also urgently needed because polypharmacy, patients taking multiple medications, is becoming a major issue in India.

Pharma Now: GenePowerRx has been in the market since 2019, and you deal with something deeply personal, people’s genetic risk. What has been the most emotionally powerful or life-changing moment you’ve witnessed through genomics-based prediction?

Dr. Kalyan: There are many cases, but a few really stand out. One involved a 62-year-old man who had been on diabetes medication for years. He was extremely disciplined, followed his diet, took his drugs exactly as prescribed, yet he suffered from abdominal issues and repeated episodes of low blood sugar.

We analysed his data and found that he didn’t actually carry genetic markers for diabetes. His kidney function and lifestyle parameters were fine. In medical terms, what he had was closer to asymptomatic hyperglycemia, his baseline blood sugar naturally ran higher. For him, a reading of 130 was normal.

We told him he didn’t need the medication. Four years later, his HbA1c is still around 7.5; he feels well and monitors himself regularly. Stopping unnecessary medication completely changed his quality of life. With diabetes, there is also a psychological burden, the feeling of being permanently ill. When you remove that label, people often regain control and confidence in their lives.

Another deeply meaningful area for us is hereditary cancer prediction. Roughly 20 per cent of certain cancers, especially breast and ovarian, run in families. Many people are familiar with genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 because of family history.

We worked with families where multiple relatives had suffered from cancer. They were undergoing constant screening and living with continuous anxiety because they had witnessed that pain firsthand.

When we analyzed their results, we could tell some of them that the mutation their mother carried was not present in them. Technically, it was a heterozygous mutation, but the key message was simple: their personal risk was no higher than anyone else’s.

Removing that constant fear from someone’s mind is incredibly powerful. We see situations like this every day. Some patients come to us taking three or four different medications. After adjusting therapy based on genetic insights, we can often reduce that number, and they finally start feeling better. Those outcomes are the most satisfying for us and reassure us that we are moving in the right direction.

Pharma Now: Psychology matters a lot. If someone’s mindset is right, half the battle is already won.

Dr. Kalyan: Completely. It takes time for people to absorb complex medical information, what their genetic makeup means and what the evidence actually shows.

Interestingly, tools like ChatGPT have helped tremendously. Earlier, we struggled to explain these concepts in simple language. Now, when patients look up a gene and ask what it does, the information is readily available and easier to understand. The evidence has always been there, but it was once buried in heavy medical jargon.

With newer AI tools, that gap is closing. Patients read their report, explore what the gene does, and often see the same recommendations we give them. That validation builds trust.

We’ve had people come back after two or three years saying, “At the time, I didn’t fully understand what you explained. Now I do, and I see the same guidance repeated elsewhere.” Technology has made information widely accessible. Our real challenge and our mission is bringing that information into everyday clinical practice.

Pharma Now: Building a deep-tech healthcare startup in India isn’t easy, scientifically, financially, or emotionally. What were the toughest early struggles, and were there moments when you almost gave up?

Dr. Kalyan: Of course—there were many. Even now, once or twice a week, I wake up and ask myself why I came back.

Healthcare in India is deeply emotional. You can experiment with food or lifestyle choices, but when it comes to health, people are cautious, and rightly so. Healthcare is delivered through physicians and established systems, and we always knew that.

We never wanted to create something superficial, a consumer-facing genetic report with no clinical value. If someone was paying for this test, it had to change something in their care. It had to be clinically useful.

That meant integrating directly into hospital systems, and that turned out to be both our biggest strength and our biggest challenge. Convincing physicians to adopt something new is not easy. Change takes time. We spent years running awareness programs, explaining what was happening in the US and Europe, and why this would soon become important in India.

Eventually, our breakthrough came through one hospital. That taught us something crucial: our model had to work inside the healthcare system. From one hospital, we moved to a second, then a third, then a fourth. Today, we work with around 45 hospitals across India and support about 28 diagnostic labs on the backend, including reporting for several large institutions.

The science had to be validated before the market would trust us. To do that, we needed Indian genomic data. We partnered with global companies like Genentech and designed research programs to collect it. We gathered data from about 7,000 people to build our database and validate our models.

Another major hurdle was internal, bringing the medical and IT teams together. Doctors are trained to identify problems. Developers need precise instructions about what to build. Early on, that mismatch caused endless back-and-forth. Over time, we learned each other’s language, and the computational models began to take shape.

Then came another turning point: GPU-based computing. It felt like a force multiplier for us. We handle close to 70 terabytes of data. Traditional servers couldn’t cope, and cloud bills were skyrocketing. Running a single experiment could cost thousands of dollars, which made trial-and-error almost impossible.

We applied to NVIDIA’s Inception program and received a $25,000 grant. That gave us access to servers where we could finally run large-scale analyses and iterate freely.

That moment changed everything. Once the models were validated, we could publish results. Those publications opened doors because physicians needed proof. They needed to see that this approach was scientifically sound before adopting it.

Pharma Now: That really is a long process. How did you stay motivated through all of this?

Dr. Kalyan: My wife played a huge role. She decided she was going to stay the course no matter what. She insisted that we had to make this work, and going back was not an option. We had already taken the leap of faith, so we committed to seeing it through. There were multiple iterations, and at times it genuinely felt like some unseen force was guiding us, at the right moments, the right solutions appeared.

At the same time, the Indian market was evolving. Diagnostic labs were beginning to look for new verticals, something innovative. We happened to be there with a complete end-to-end solution, which made integration easier. That’s how things slowly developed into what we are today.

I wouldn’t say we are performing at an extraordinary level yet. Awareness is still low, only about two to three per cent of physicians currently adopt this science. The real inflexion point will come when around 20 per cent of physicians begin routinely using genomics. That’s when change will accelerate in India.

Pharma Now:  But it sounds like there’s a lot involved in generating these reports. Is the process invasive or complicated? How does it actually work?

Dr. Kalyan: It’s quite simple. We usually collect a blood sample, just a routine blood test. Only about two millilitres of blood. If someone isn’t in a metropolitan area, we can even use a buccal swab. You just take the swab, send it to us, and we isolate the DNA from that.

From there, we run the analysis and generate the report. The turnaround time is about 2 weeks, including genetic counselling. If the patient’s physician is involved, we send the report directly with recommendations on what needs to be done.

Most physicians simply share the prescription and the sample with us. We review whether the current medications are appropriate, whether doses can be adjusted, or whether something should be changed. We provide alternative recommendations, and the physician makes the final call and updates the prescription.

We now have data from about 12,000 cases. We continue validating everything on the backend and follow up after three or six months to see whether patients improved, stayed the same, or worsened after changes were made. So far, we’ve seen a 97 per cent success rate, meaning patients either improved or did not deteriorate.

About 3% were lost to follow-up, so we can’t draw conclusions from that. But for the vast majority, outcomes have been positive: fewer side effects and better control of their conditions.

Pharma Now: Amazing. But Dr. Kalyan, do you believe India is truly ready, clinically, culturally, and technically, for large-scale genomics-based preventive healthcare?

Dr. Kalyan: Not yet. But if you look at India’s demographics, we are at a very critical point.

We often say we are the youngest population in the world, but from another perspective, in the next 20 years, many of these young people will develop chronic diseases. If we don’t act now, especially at the policy level, we could become one of the most disease-burdened populations globally within two decades.

Our average age is around 20 to 25. If we fail to intervene through food policy, blood pressure control, lipid monitoring, and heart disease prevention, these issues will severely affect us as a nation.

In Vision 2047, the government has also emphasised population health as a priority. To achieve that, we need a genomic-level understanding of disease patterns, where they arise, why they occur, and how early we should intervene. Women’s health and cancer prevention, in particular, demand this level of precision.

Pharma Now: What is the one mindset shift both doctors and patients must adopt over the next five years?

Dr. Kalyan: From a physician’s perspective, whether we like it or not, this is going to become mainstream medicine. Preventive care will take precedence as people become more informed. If doctors don’t adapt to AI and big-data–driven medicine, their practice will eventually be left behind.

From a personal perspective, people need to better understand their bodies. You can’t take health for granted. You need to know how your environment affects you, how your food choices impact you, and how your genetics fits into the bigger picture.

The goal should be a healthy lifespan, not just a long one. That means enjoying life, staying productive, and maintaining a good quality of life. It’s about quality over quantity. If you want to stay healthy, you should start at 25.

Pharma Now: One word to describe the future of healthcare.

Dr. Kalyan: Reassuring. The future of healthcare is reassuring because treatments won’t be broad or indiscriminate anymore. They will be personalised. Medicine will move from blanket approaches to targeted therapies, where a specific defect is treated rather than merely controlled.

Pharma Now: Biggest myth about genomics?

Dr. Kalyan: The biggest myth is that this science is new or immature.

As both a scientist and a physician, I don’t believe in “advanced” versus “basic” science. We still understand only a small fraction of how the human body works. Science is always evolving; its purpose is to use what we know today to help people better tomorrow.

Pharma Now: If you weren’t a doctor or a founder, what would you have been?

Dr. Kalyan: I probably would have been a farmer.

My grandparents were farmers, and it runs in the family. If there hadn’t been urbanisation or access to education, I might have stayed in the village. Maybe I would even have been happier, I don’t know. If you go back three or four generations, most of us probably come from villages. Life might have been simpler.

Pharma Now: Thank you for bringing this startup to India. People are grateful for what you’re building, and we truly appreciate you sharing such a fascinating story on our platform.



Dr. Kalyan: Thank you so much for the opportunity. I’m glad we could have this discussion, especially with a young team. Every story carries something new, and I hope we continue working together.