About shankar

Courses developed and taught

• BBL1010 - Introduction to Bioengineering - B.Tech. Institute-wide

• BBL3010 - Introductory Omics - B.Tech. Bioengineering

• BBL3120 - Genetics & Gene Manipulation - B.Tech. Bioengineering

• BBL4250 - Microbiomes and Metagenomics - B.Tech. Bioengineering

• BBL7460 - Synthetic Biology - B.Tech., M.Tech. & Ph.D. Bioscience & Bioengineering 

• BBL7370 - Microbial Genomes & Microbiomes - B.Tech., M.Tech. & Ph.D. Bioscience & Bioengineering 

• BBL7010 - Omics Technologies - B.Tech., M.Tech. & Ph.D. Bioscience & Bioengineering

• BBL6400 - Next-generation Omics Technologies - Post-graduate Diploma in Next-Generation OMICS Technologies and Applications

• BBL7140 - Sample QC and Processing Techniques - Post-graduate Diploma in Next-Generation OMICS Technologies and Applications

Administrative Experience

• Associate Dean, Alumni Relations (Since 2023)

• Faculty In-charge, Alumni Relations (2018 - 2023)

• Member Secretary, Institutional Biosafety Committee (2021 - 2023)

• Member Secretary, Institutional Ethics Committee (Since 2021)

• Member, UG Curriculum Revision Committee (2025)

• Member, Library Committee

• Member, Animal House Committee

• Convenor, Recognition of Excellence in Young Alumni Awards Assessment Committee (Since 2019)

• Convenor, Department Postgraduate Committee (Since 2024)

• Faculty Advisor, B.Tech. Bioengineering, Class of 2024 (Since 2024)

• Faculty Advisor, B.Tech. Biotechnology, Class of 2022 (2018-2022)

• President, Society of Alumni Affairs (Since 2022)

• President, Bioscience & Bioengineering Departmental Society (2021 - 2023)

Leadership Training

• Selected to attend and completed the EMBO Laboratory Leadership course taught by Dr. CJ Fitzsimons and Dr. Samuel Krahl between 6th and 9th April 2021

• Nominated by IIT Jodhpur and completed the Nurturing Future Leadership Program, an executive education course offered by the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak between 3rd to 7th June 2024

Awards

• Awarded the Best Poster Award under the Faculty Visionaries section at the ASM-IISc Global Research Symposium, organized at IISc, Bangalore; 2025

• Awarded the Illustrious Alumnus award by the Thiagarajar College Alumni Association, Madurai; 2022

• Awarded the Dr. Vandana Sharma memorial award for Teaching Innovation by the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur; 2022

• Awarded the competitive DBT/Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance; 2017

Professional Memberships

• Global Outreach - Contributing Member, American Society for Microbiology, USA

• Life Member, Association of Microbiologists of India

• Life Member, Biotechnology Research Society India

How we got here...

I have always been fascinated by the microscopic world that we often tend to overlook.  I used to believe that microbes merely cause diseases and would arrogantly wonder how something so small could bring down something as complex as a human. My bachelors program in biotechnology taught me that these microbes, if used in the right way, could promote health, produce consumables and protect us. This knowledge increased my fascination with microbiology and incited a curiosity in me to understand how these microorganisms function. After completing my bachelors, I was accepted in a masters program in Genomics offered by the prestigious School of Biological Sciences (SBS) at Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU). That was the year when Marshall and Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of H. pylori as the etiological agent for gastric ulcers. As I studied the molecular pathogenesis of H. pylori, I was fascinated by how this organism had evolved mechanisms to survive in the hostile gastric environment, evade the human immune system, and cause disease. 

The SBS at MKU is any science-lover’s paradise. The School pursues research on a variety of subjects and the expertise of the faculty in these subjects was world-renowned. The masters course in Genomics practically helped me zoom in to the molecular world inside the microbes that I had been fascinated with. Emboldened by this new perspective, I joined Prof. P. Gunasekaran’s team at the Department of Genetics, SBS, MKU in an ICAR-funded project to characterize interactions between the rice plant and its root-colonizing bacteria. Our research unearthed a molecular signaling pathway in the rice rhizosphere wherein the plant exuded quorum sensing signal mimics, could affect bacterial populations on the root surface.

Pursuing a biological question relentlessly and finally elucidating something previously unknown through my research gave me a feeling of accomplishment unlike any other. At this point, I had decided to pursue a career in academia. To this end, I joined Prof. Indranil Biswas at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow investigating the regulation of virulence mechanisms in Streptococcus mutans. Although I had a world-class research experience at KUMC, I was determined to return to India and establish myself as an independent researcher back home. The three years that I spent in Prof. Biswas’ lab helped me evolve as a researcher and guided me to my niche for independent research. My experience with S. mutans as a pathogen has taught me that much about this bacterium remains to be understood even after several decades of research. Whatever little progress we have made in preventing infections, developing diagnostics and developing new therapies owes its success to the decades of basic research conducted on this organism. Thus, I believe that fully understanding pathogenic bacteria and the cellular processes within them will help us fight them by developing new diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive measures against them. At this point, I was introduced to the funding opportunities offered by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance. After undergoing a rigorous screening process, my research proposal was recommended for an award. The funding from the India Alliance has been indispensable in establishing our laboratory and building up strong foundations for our research programs at IIT Jodhpur.