He received his Ph.D. from University of Madras, Chennai, India. He started his first postdoctoral training in the Department of Biochemistry at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. In 1997 he started his second postdoctoral research in South Korea. Kabilan joined the Department of Oral Biology at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine in 1999. He is working on host-pathogen interaction studies focusing specifically on protective role of lactoferrin on different oral diseases. He is also working on different lactoferrin peptides and testing their effects in in vivo mouse model. In addition, Kabilan has successfully identified a naturally occurring group of organosulfur compounds with a significant potential to be used as an alternative therapy to treat oral and systemic diseases. Apart from research, Kabilan is teaching Microscopy course to Ph.D. and Master students.