Dr. Vasan advises HJF leadership and staff on all medical and public health matters that may affect HJF teammates. She also leads global infectious diseases research for HJF. In addition to overseeing HJF components of the agreement, she provides key leadership for a wide array of basic and clinical studies.

Dr. Vasan previously served as the Principal Investigator representing HJF in support of the Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) and Viral Diseases Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Prior to this role, she was Science Director and Head of the Nonhuman Primate Laboratory at the Armed forces Medical Research Institute of Science (AFRIMS) in Bangkok where she conducted clinical trials in HIV vaccines and therapeutics while developing animal models to understand HIV pathogenesis. This built on her work conducting research on HIV vaccines, therapies, and adjuvants at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Rockefeller University in New York. She worked previously as a Henry Luce Foundation Fellow at the Communicable Disease Centre in Singapore, where she studied patterns of tuberculosis and HIV co-infection and worked with the National University of Singapore to conduct public health surveillance studies in rural Indonesia.

Dr. Vasan obtained her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at MIT before completing her M.D. at Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University.