Professor & Head(i/c)

Professor Achuthsankar S. Nair has been heading the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics since its inception. He is a senior Professor in the University who has more than 30 years of experience in academics. He has guided over 25 PhD scholars. His areas of interests are Digital Signal Processing applied to bio- sequences and Machine Learning problems in Sequence Analysis. A native of Thiruvananthapuram city, he had his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram. He pursued his MTech in IIT, Bombay and took his MPhil from University of Cambridge, UK. He holds two PhDs from University of Kerala, in Engineering and Music. He is also author of a science/ history based novel, Tharipp. He is a heritage and green activist and also a popular science writer. He is recipient of the Teacher Award of Indian National Science Academy in 2014, and was Director of C-DIT, Govt. of Kerala during 2001-2004.

Joined: Jan 2018

Dr. Biji C.L., a creative and motivating teacher over a decade of experience in teaching and research. She has excellent technical skills and exceptional managerial skills and could leverage her skills to work well with different disciplines . She shows a great passion and perseverance in coordinating various academic and co curricular activities. With her innate ability of observing and understanding situation make herself a good team player. She is an active listener, quick learner and a productive contributor for her research. Being a self motivated data analyst , she has a strong curiosity in applying mathematical and machine learning models for health care and agriculture. She is passionate in developing insights from genomics data and that resulted in NCBI databank entries. She has a modest number of publications in high quality peer reviewed journals. She is fascinated with popular science communication and experiments with pedagogy. she has published a few popular scientific articles aimed at enlightening laymen. She is also a budding designer and serves as the Editor of Department newsletter. She holds a PhD in Computational Biology from University of Kerala in addition to a Master of Engineering degree from Anna University. She hails from Thiruvananthapuram and her other passion involves craft making, reading, cooking and writing poems.

Faculty, SIUCEB | Joined: June 2011

Dr. Rani is an enthusiastic, responsible and hardworking person with good interpersonal skills. She has teaching experience of over a decade and leads the lecturing team of the dept. She has a PhD in Bioinformatics from University of Kerala. Her research area is Plant-Pathogen interaction with focus on Next Generation Sequence. Her work on the transcriptome and genome sequence analysis of Pythium splendens which affects the black pepper plant gained NCBI entries and publications for the sequenced data. Her areas of academic interests are NGS data analysis, Transcriptomics, Genomics and Computer Aided Drug Design. Rani is a native of Trivandrum and a DCB alumnus as well. She pursued her MPhil degree in Bioinformatics from DCB. She is a postgraduate in Biotechnology from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Her MPhil and PhD are from DCB. She enjoys music, traveling, cooking and playing chess.

Ms. Shanitha A. is a simple, sincere, responsible and hardworking person with amiable nature. She is very dedicated towards the department in all aspects, be it administrative activities, teaching, research work or interaction with students. She has teaching experience of over a decade and is also an expert consultant and resource person in drug related docking studies. She has led DCB club activities such as DCB Karunya and DCB Kayika. As a teacher she is constantly updating the resources and equips the students to compete. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Epigenetics related ageing studies under the guidance of Prof. Achuthsankar S. Nair, Dr. Saja K and Prof. P. R. Sudhakaran. Her research areas include Computer Aided Drug Designing, Molecular dynamic simulation, Sequence analysis, Phylogenetic tree construction and Epigenetics. She has also served as a quality assurance officer in the Agency for Development of Aquaculture under the Fisheries Dept. of the state government. She has also served as programme officer of the National Service Scheme in her career.

She pursued her MPhil. degree in Computer Aided Drug Design from this Department. She acquired her MSc. degree in Biotechnology from Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam with NET. She hails from Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram known as Dhakshina Kashi. She is an active reader (Best reader: Two times in Dept.) enjoys music, gardening and travelling.

Joined: June 08 2011

Dr. Sunitha is a sincere, dedicated, hardworking and delightful person. She has been teaching in this department for over a decade. She is also a passionate, empathetic and adaptable person with a drive for self-improvement. To include creativity in teaching is the benchmark of a good teacher and she keeps her finger on the pulse and always strives to further develop and polish her skills. She has been a team leader and is an excellent team player and has co-ordinated and contributed to many significant academic and other co-curricular events in the department. Her administrative skills are worth commendable. Her keenest wish is to leave a footprint in the world of research. Her major research has been on the analysis of genes regulating the process of angiogenesis and has modest publication in this area. She completed her PhD in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics from University of Kerala. Her other areas of interest are in Genomics, Transcriptomics including Next Generation Sequencing analysis, small RNA analysis, Functional analysis and interpretation. She took her M.Phil. in Bioinformatics from this department after completing her Graduation & Post Graduation in Biotechnology. She is interested in popular science communications and is also the Associate Editor of DCB InSIDE, the newsletter of the Department. She hails from the capital city, Thiruvananthapuram; the land of Lord Sree Padmanabha. She enjoys listening to music, playing badminton, reading, cooking and making friends. She is also passionate about photography and crafts making.

Prof. (Dr.) Oommen V. Oommen after completing his Masters and Doctorate degree from Banaras Hindu University worked in the Department of Zoology, University of Kerala for 30 years as Lecturer, Reader, Professor and Head. He later became the Dean of Faculty of Science at the university. The Centre for Bioinformatics, which later developed as the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, was started during his tenure as head. His areas of research include Comparative Endocrinology, Developmental Biology, Biodiversity, and Venom Informatics. Soon after his formal retirement, he continued as a CSIR Emeritus Scientist and later became Chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board. He has also worked as adjunct Professor at Central University of Kerala and IISER, Trivandrum. He has mentored 27 doctoral students and several MPhil and masters students. He has published around 170 papers in peer reviewed journals apart from a few reviews. He has co-edited a few books published by Springer Nature, Bentham Science Publishers and KSBB. He has also organized several International and national Conferences in different parts of the country. Recognizing his contributions to Caecilian biology, scientists from NHM, London honored him by naming a caecilian species (Uraeotyphlus oommeni) after him. He was a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow and a visiting Professor in MD Anderson Cancer Centre, University of Texas, U.S. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences India and Kerala Academy of Sciences. At present, Professor Oommen also serves as Hon. Director at the Centre for Venom Informatics engaged in bioprospecting for human welfare.

Prof. (Dr.) P.R. Sudhakaran presently serves as Emeritus Scientist (Sir Asuthosh Mukherjee Fellow) in Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. He joined Department of Bio-chemistry, University of Kerala after completing his PhD from the same institution and post-doctoral research at University of Münster, Germany. In a career span of more than three and half decades, he supervised 37 doctoral students and guided the thesis works of 12 MPhil students. He has published 141 research articles, 4 book chapters, and edited 3 books. He served as the visiting scientist at institutions such as USDA, Beltsville (USA), Institute of Arteriosclerosis Research, Münster (Germany), IARC, Lyon (France), National Food Research Institute (Japan), and University of Alberta (Canada). He is a recipient of several fellowships and awards such as Fellow Royal Society of Medicine, Fellow National Academy of Medical Sciences, JC Bose Award for Research in Life Science, Asuthosh Mukherjee Fellowship, and KSCSTE Emeritus Scientist Award. He also held the position of Director, Kerala Biotechnology Commission, Dean of School of Biological Sciences, Central University of Kerala and Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Kerala. He was a Member, Executive Committee, KSCSTE, Member of Scientific Advisory Council, ICMR Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair. Some of his prominent associations with various organizations are: President, Society for Translational Research, President, Indian Society for Atherosclerosis Research, President of Kerala Academy of Sciences, Member IQAC, Member/ Coordinator of peer team for institutional evaluation by NAAC, UGC, Vice Chairman for conduct of PG Programmes in 38 departments of University of Kerala under CSS Scheme.