T. Narender was born in a remote village, Vilasagar, which is located in the Karimnagar district of Telangana State, India. He obtained the Ph.D. degree in the area of natural products (phytochemistry) from the University of Kakatiya, Warangal, Telangana, India in 1999. During his doctoral studies, he received fellowship (1994-1999) from the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, India. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree, he joined as a Scientist in the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) Cochin, which is one of the constituents of ICAR, New Delhi, India in November 1999, and continued there until July 2002, where he worked on the bioactive substances from the marine organisms. In July 2002, he moved to the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India, on a higher position, and July 2011 onwards he holds a Principal Scientist position. At the CDRI, he is involved in the drug discovery program from the Indian medicinal plants, marine organisms. He has been awarded the BOYSCAST Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India, in 2007. As a part of this program he visited University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA, where he worked in Prof. William Fenical’s lab on marine bacteria and fungus from April 2007 to March 2008. He published 107 research articles in various national and international journals, two book chapters, a US patent and delivered several invited lectures in national and international conferences. Under his supervision ten students have been awarded their Ph.D and one of the thesis supervised by him has been chosen for Eli Lilly and Company Asia Outstanding Thesis Award for the year 2014. He has been honored with the CDRI Incentive Award for the best publication during the year 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Currently, his research group is engaged in development of novel drugs/leads for various diseases such as malaria, leishmania, cancer, diabetes, and lipid lowering from the Indian medicinal plants, marine organisms. He also carries out work on chemical transformation and synthesis of natural products of biological importance.