Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

MBBS., MD (Community Medicine)

Secondary affiliation:

Associate Professor
Faculty of Medical Research
Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (An institute of national importance)
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Personal Statement

Dr. Leeberk Raja is a Community Health Physician with postgraduate training from Christian Medical College, Vellore, and currently serves as Senior Medical Scientist at ICMR–NIRT. He has experience in primary care and non-communicable disease programmes at Bangalore Baptist Hospital. His research focuses on tuberculosis diagnostics and evidence synthesis, with expertise in diagnostic test accuracy and prognostic reviews. His Cochrane reviews on Truenat MTB assays received the 2025 Kenneth Warren Prize. He contributes to Cochrane groups, leads the Technical Resource Centre (DHR), and is PI of the INSHORT trial, with nearly 100 publications including in The Lancet.

Research Focus

• • TB meningitis
• • TB diagnostics
• • Evidence synthesis, specific focus on diagnostic test accuracy and prognosis reviews.

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1. Comparative evaluation of intensified short course regimen and standard regimen for adults TB meningitis : an open label randomized controlled trial (INSHORT trial) (NCT: NCT05917340) –Funded by ICMR

2. Impact of Xpert MTB/XDR in early diagnosis and treatment and 6-month mortality in patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis: a pragmatic quasi experimental study – Funded by ICMR

3. Treatment outcome and emergence of drug resistance among patients diagnosed with Isoniazid (INH) mono-resistant pulmonary Tuberculosis in Tamil Nadu: a cohort study- Funded by ICMR

4. Technical Resource centre (PI), Centre for Evidence for Guidelines, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family welfare

5. DHR- commissioned three systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy to inform PCOS guidelines

6. WHO commissioned evidence synthesis on “Prognostic value of hyperglycemia markers in pregnancy for predicting adverse maternal, foetal, and neonatal outcomes” to inform the upcoming WHO guidelines on Gestational Diabetes mellitus.

Significant Publications

1. Inbaraj LR*, Srinivasalu VA, Sathya Narayanan MK, Bhaskar A, Daniel J, Scandrett K, Korobitsyn A, Ismail N, Takwoingi Y. Diagnostic accuracy of low-complexity, manual nucleic acid amplification tests for the detection of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis in adults and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis∗. Lancet Microbe. 2025 Oct;6(10):101169.

2. Inbaraj LR*, Sathya Narayanan MK, Daniel J, Srinivasalu VA, Bhaskar A, Daniel BD, Epsibha T, Scandrett K, Rajendran P, Rose W, Korobitsyn A, Ismail N, Takwoingi Y. Low-complexity manual nucleic acid amplification tests for pulmonary tuberculosis in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Jun 25;6(6):CD015806

3. Inbaraj LR*, Daniel J, Sathya Narayanan MK, Srinivasalu VA, Bhaskar A, Scandrett K et al. Truenat MTB assays for pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in adults and adolescents. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Mar 24;3(3):CD015543

4. Inbaraj LR, George CE, Chandrasingh S. Seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a rural district of South India: A population-based seroepidemiological study. PLoS One. 2021;16(3):e0249247

5. George CE, Inbaraj LR*, Chandrasingh S, de Witte LP. High seroprevalence of COVID- 19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?. Epidemiol Infect. 2021;149:e39. doi:10.1017/S0950268821000273

6. Inbaraj LR*, Khaja S, George CE, Norman G. Paternal involvement in feeding and its association with nutritional status of children in an urban slum in a low-resource setting: A cross-sectional study. Nutrition. 2020;74:110735. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2020.110735

7. Bhavani PK, Jeyanthi A, Bhaskar A, Sathya Narayanan MK, Inbaraj LR*. Efficacy & safety of high-dose rifampicin in pulmonary tuberculosis: A systematic review & meta-analysis. Indian J Med Res 161, May 2025, pp 449-460

8. Giridharan P, Inbaraj LR*, Frederick A, Selvaraju S, Ramraj B, Thiruvengadam K, Daniel BD, Padmapriyadarsini C. Diagnostic accuracy of screening and diagnostic tests used in a state-wide tuberculosis prevalence survey in India. Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 18;15(1):9305.

9. Inbaraj LR*, Manesh A, Ponnuraja C, Bhaskar A, Srinivasalu VA, Daniel BD. Comparative evaluation of intensified short course regimen and standard regimen for adults TB meningitis: a protocol for an open label, multi-center, parallel arms, randomized controlled superiority trial (INSHORT trial). Trials. 2024 May 2;25(1):294. doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08133-6.

10. Inbaraj LR, Chandrasingh S, Arun Kumar N, Suchitra J, Manesh A. High susceptibility to varicella among urban and rural pregnant women in South India: a brief report. Epidemiology and Infection. 2021;149:e63.

*Corresponding author

Awards and Honours

• Kenneth Warren Prize by Cochrane collaboration (2025)

• WHO TDR fellowship to attend Cochrane Colloquium 2023, an international annual conference of the Cochrane Collaboration in the UK, London. (2023)

• Won the best Oral presentation award in 60th Annual Conference of the Indian Public Health Association in Dehradun, India (2016)

• Partial scholarship to attend 12th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety -2016), Tampere, Finland (2016)

• GHETS travel grant to attend the Annual Conference in Authya, Thailand (2013)

• Awarded a full scholarship to attend Rendez-Vous in Thunder Bay, Canada (2012)

• Second Certificate of Honor in Community Medicine (2007)

• Student fellowship by GHETS (Global Health Education, Training and Service) to attend the Annual conference of TUFH in Ghent, Belgium (2006)

Research Profiles