Aswin did his B.Tech in Biotechnology from VIT University, Vellore and joined the lab in 2019 as a Project Associate. Afterwards, he enrolled as a PhD student in 2021. He has a great fascination towards RNA exonucleases and currently focused on deciphering their role in two independent diseases namely Vitiligo and Coronavirus. Specifically, in case of Vitiligo, his motive is to understand the mechanism of melanocyte death and in coronavirus, his work primarily focuses on deciphering the mechanism that provides the virus its genome stability and resistance towards drugs.

His other selective interests include reading books, travelling and exploring the beauty, food and culture of the world. Also, he loves Anime.

Jeyashri completed her Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from SASTRA University and joined our lab as a PhD student in 2020. Her research focuses on uncovering the role of the novel gene RNASEK in neural crest specification and melanocyte development. Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a model system, she investigates how RNASEK may regulate melanocyte differentiation through piRNA-mediated mechanisms.

Beyond the lab, Jeyashri is an avid fiction reader who enjoys getting lost in captivating stories. She’s a movie enthusiast, a music lover, and an amateur artist. With a deep love for the mountains, she’s always up for spontaneous adventures and exploring new places.

Ayesha did her bachelors and masters in biotechnology from JMI University, Delhi. She joined the lab as a PhD student in 2021 and is working towards deciphering the role of histone variants in regulating the chromatin architecture of neural crest cells. 

Srashti did her bachelor’s from the Department of Biochemistry, at Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi. Her interest in Genetics steered her to get a master’s degree from the Department of Genetics, University of Delhi. Since she scored AIR 3 in the Genetics entrance test, she was awarded the Monsanto Post-Graduate Scholarship by the University of Delhi. She joined the lab in 2023 after working in Dr. Sridhar Sivasubbu’s lab for 4 years. Since the beginning of her research journey at CSIR-IGIB, she has been extremely enthusiastic about working with Zebrafish. She is currently working on understanding the effects of variations in nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes to better understand the genotype-phenotype correlations in mitochondrial disorders. 

She loves drawing, reading, writing, and making PowerPoint presentations whenever the opportunity arises. She is also currently a student ambassador at IGIB, working for Springer Nature India. 

Dharani earned her Bachelor’s degree from Thiagarajar College, Madurai, and her Master’s from Pondicherry University. She joined the lab in 2024 and is currently investigating DNA damage, repair mechanisms, and mutagenesis triggered by pigmentation-induced stress, using both cell lines and zebrafish as model systems. She is especially interested in understanding how pigmentation-related cellular stress influences genome integrity across developmental stages. Beyond the bench, Dharani is a hodophile, a movie buff, and a fantasy fiction enthusiast. 

When not in the lab, you might find her sketching stories in chalk or singing her way through the day—because science and art go hand in hand.

Sribas graduated with a B.Tech in Biotechnology from Adamas University in Kolkata, West Bengal. He first joined the lab as an Indian Academy of Sciences summer intern in 2023 and returned as Project Associate I in 2024 after completing his degree. His project focuses on exploring the role of histone variants in neural crest fate specification, where he leads the bioinformatic analysis of genomic and epigenomic datasets. 

His interests span omics technologies, structural protein biology, and epigenetics, with the long-term goal of building a career in biological data science to advance personalized therapeutic applications.

Swaminathan Thyagarajan did his Undergraduate in Biomedical sciences from SRIHER, Chennai, India following that did his Post-graduation in Stem cell and Regenerative Medicine from Aston University, Birmingham, UK. 

He is in the lab as a project associate from 2024, working in the SARS-CoV-2 project mainly in protein expression and purification.

Wasim did his bachelors and Masters in Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University.

He has joined the lab in January 2025, and he is interested in learning and exploring the mechanisms leading to Vitiligo. He will be working on the role of Myg1 in maintaining the homeostasis of melanocytes and how this homeostasis is affected in disease like Vitiligo.

Hobbies - Music, Playing cricket