Anand Ranganathan obtained his BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry from St. Stephen's College, Delhi after which he left on a Nehru Centenary Scholarship for Cambridge, UK, where he obtained his BA (Tripos) in Natural Sciences, his MA, and his PhD. After a postdoctoral stint at Cambridge, Anand returned to India to join International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi where he ran his lab for 16 years.