What's happening ?

December 2022, Shankar was awarded the IIustrious Alumni award by his Alma mater, Thiagarajar College of Arts & Sciences, Madurai. Congratulations Shankar !

December 2022, Shankar was invited to deliver a lecture as part of the Antibiotic Resistance Awareness lecture series co-organised by the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology work at Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli.

December 2022, Shubham led the lab's first Nanopore sequencing of metagenomic DNA on our cool toy the MinION Mk1C. Stay tuned for more updates on this new and exciting project !

November 2022, Shubham attended a international workshop on Computational Genomics for NGS Data analysis: Concepts, Methods and application, co-organised by University of Delhi, New Delhi and NyBerMan Bioinformatics Europe, Orleans, France

November 2022, Shubham successfully defended his interim M.Tech. project evaluation titled " Biological Soil Crusts of the Thar desert: A resource for bioprospecting " from the lab with appreciation from both examiners. Congratulations!

November 2022, Aastha attended a hands on workshop on Era of Big Data in Genomics at CSIR-IMTECH from 7-12th November

October 2022, Aastha attended the KlebNET-GSP webinar series held online

September 2022, Aastha successfully presented her work as poster at the Annual progress meeting at IIT Jodhpur

September 2022, Shankar presented the Lab's work on biological soil crusts of the Thar desert in a conference on Restoring Natural Ecologies organized by the Ecological Restoration Alliance in collaboration with the Rao Jodha desert rock park, Jodhpur

August 2022, Our work on understanding the unknown determinants of mucoviscosity of Kpn strain was highlighted in various media articles- India Today, Biospectrum India, Finanical Express and The Print.

August 2022, Shankar received the “Dr. Vandana Sharma memorial award for Teaching Innovation” for development of the Thinkathon, an innovative teaching tool during the foundation day ceremony at IIT Jodhpur. Congratulations Shankar !

July 2022, Our work was highlighted by DBT/WT India Alliance. Unknown determinants of hypermucoviscosity in Klebsiella pneumoniae

July 2022, Shubham was selected to attended the Computational Workshop on Genomics, Proteomics and Metagenomics (CWGPM-2022) at CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi between 20th and 23rd July 2022

July 2022, Our new lab Logo is out! A carefully thought design with inputs from each one of us rendered wonderfully by Lavanya! The logo represents how we study the physiology of different individual microbial systems as well as microbial communities (human and others) using genomics approaches. We even embedded an Easter egg in our logo ;) Let us know if you find it !

June 2022, Sharvika successfully defends her M.Tech. project thesis titled "Role of minor RNA chaperones in the regulation of virulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae " from the lab with appreciation from both examiners. Congratulations!

June 2022, Anuja successfully defends her M.Tech. project thesis titled "Determinants of hypermucoviscosity in a string-test positive strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae " from the lab with appreciation from both examiners. Congratulations!

June 2022, The lab's fourth Nanopore run on Minion Mk1C to sequence the inactivated locus in a few of the transposon mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae identified by Anuja and Tamal in their screen. Congratulations to our Ph.D. students (Aastha, Tamal) and M.Tech. trainees (Sharvika, Anuja, Shubham), who actively took this project forward!

June 2022, Our first paper from our fledgling Lab "Unusual Hypermucoviscous Clinical Isolate of Klebsiella pneumoniae with No Known Determinants of Hypermucoviscosity" is accepted in Microbiology Spectrum. Congratulations to the entire team on this milestone !

May 2022, We generated our lab's first transposon mutant library. Around 21500 mutants screened by the entire lab in record time of 2 weeks ! Exciting times ahead...

May 2022, Shankar, Lavanya, Aastha and Tamal attended the Klebsiella Virtual Seminar Series 2022 from 10th May to 6th June

May 2022, The Lab got together in a dinner to celebrate the upcoming graduation of Anuja and Sharvika!

May 2022, We moved into our Lab #320 in the brand new Department building: Asima Chatterjee Bhawan, Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering Department. The Lab was inaugurated jointly by all members !

April 2022, We participated in IIT Jodhpur's 1st Open House - IIT Padhaaro, and showcased our work and exhibits that brought to light the unseen microbial life around us. IIT Padhaaro was organized by the institute on 20th April 2022

April 2022, Shankar coordinated the organization of the Industry Day of Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Jodhpur, with the theme "Bio" in the engineering space: Opportunities for DeepTech entrepreneurs on 15th April 2022

April 2022, Lavanya published an article on "Bacteria and the case of rising antimicrobial resistance" in TechScape, the Science, Technology and Education Journal of IIT Jodhpur. Congratulations !

February 2022, Our first Klebsiella pneumoniae genome was published on GenBank with accession number CP076526. This was a unique hypermucoviscous strain with no known determinants of hypermucoviscosity that was sequenced and analyzed in-house.

January 2022, Lavanya was selected for, and attended, the Fifth Bangalore School on Population Genetics and Evolution, conducted by International Center for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore, 17-28 January

January 2022, Aastha attended the 6th Meeting on Regulating with RNA in Bacteria and Archaea held between 3rd and 7th January 2022

January 2022, Shubham joined us to pursue his M.Tech. thesis with us. He will study the biological soil crusts of the Thar desert. Welcome!

November 2021, The lab family got together to celebrate Diwali and the festive season !

October 2021, Shankar served as a Resource Person and delivered a talk on the topic “Gut microbes: At the intersection of Health & Disease’’ in the Online Refresher Course in Life Sciences sponsored by UGC - Human Resource Development Centre, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625021.

September 2021, Anuja and Sharvika participated in the design of an exhibit for the Thar DESIGNS (Desert EcoSystem Innovations Guided by Nature & Selection) vertical of the Jodhpur City Knowledge and Innovation Cluster, which was inaugurated by Honourable Vice-President Shri. Venkaiah Naidu at IIT Jodhpur.

September 2021, Ardhendu attended the virtual 3-day webinar on "Microbiome Sequencing online-2021"

August 2021, The lab's third Nanopore run to sequence the genomes of several clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Congratulations to our Ph.D. students (Aastha, Ardhendu, Lavanya, Tamal), who actively took this project forward !

August 2021, Shankar delivered an invited lecture on Nanopore sequencing for drug resistance landscaping and genomic surveillance of Klebsiella pneumoniae in the International Conference on Advances in Biosciences & Biotechnology organized by the Department of Biotechnology, Mother Teresa Womens University, Kodaikanal

August 2021, Tamal rejoined us as PhD. student aftera successful M.Tech. project from the lab. Welcome!

July 2021, Aastha and Anuja presented a poster on " Exploring Viral community in the Indian desert ecosystem" in DESIGN webinar held at IIT Jodhpur

July 2021, Shankar coordinated the organization of DESIGNS from the Thar, a jamboree at Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, IIT Jodhpur. He also delivered a talk on "The invisible desert ecosystem: Mining for microbes in the desert"

July 2021, Lavanya attended a webinar on Writing for a Public Audience, by Dr. Megan Pillow

July 2021, Lavanya successfully defended his Research Proposal. He has been promoted as Senior Research Fellow. Congratulations !

July 2021, Aastha successfully defended her Research Proposal. She has been promoted as Senior Research fellow. Congratulations !

July 2021, Ardhendu, Aastha and Shankar attended a Webinar on Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of microbes"

June 2021, The lab's second Nanopore run to sequence the genomes of several clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Congratulations to our Ph.D. students (Ardhendu, Lavanya) and M.Tech. trainees (Tamal, Sharvika, Anuja), who actively took this project forward !

June 2021, Tamal successfully defends his M.Tech. project thesis titled "Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence factors: The capsule & beyond" from the lab with appreciation from both examiners. Congratulations !

June 2021, The Microbial Physiology group attended the "65th Annual Wind river conference on prokaryotic biology". Ardhendu, Aastha and Tamal presented their work as posters in the conference.

May 2021, Aastha attended Oxford Nanopore's London Calling 2021 virtual conference, where the applications of Nanopore sequencing in the areas of microbial, human, animal and plant research were highlighted.

May 2021, Anuja & Sharvika join the lab. Welcome!

April 2021, Shankar moderated a session on Bioengineering Solutions for Environment in the International Conference Bioengineering Solutions for Healthcare, Food, Energy, and Environment organized by IIT Jodhpur in collaboration with BRSI, India.

April 2021, Shankar participated in an EMBO Laboratory Leadership course organized by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance (India Alliance) and EMBO

April 2021, Ardhendu presented a flash talk and poster titled "Nanopore sequencing for virulence and drug resistance landscaping of clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates" in the International Conference on Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Health (BSAEH-2021), organized by the Biotechnology Research Society of India.

February 2021, Lavanya and Aastha attended the Science Communication: Impact Beyond Publication, Cactus Communications

December 2020, Shankar delivered an invited lecture in a refresher course on "Recent Trends in Lifesciences", organized by the Human Resource Development Centre, Madurai Kamaraj University

October 2020, Aastha attended the virtual conference on "Regulating with RNA in Bacteria"

October 2020, The lab performed its first genome sequencing run on the Oxford Nanopore Minion device successfully by sequencing the genomes of 9 clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. A small team (Aastha, Ardhendu, Tamal) worked round the clock to pull off this achievement. Congratulations !

September 2020, Lavanya and Aastha attended the International Conference on Data Science in Biology, IITJ and Institute of Bioinformatics

August 2020, Lavanya attended the Annual (e-)meeting of Society for Mathematical Biology

May 2020, Tamal joins the lab. Welcome!

April 2020, Lavanya got Selected for and attended: Code in Place by Dr. Mehran Sahami and Dr. Chris Piech

7th January 2020, The Microbial Physiology Group coordinated the organization of a Science Communication workshop conducted by the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance for young researchers in and around Jodhpur. About a hundred early-career researchers from various institutions in and around Jodhpur (AIIMS; JECRC, Jaipur; DMRC; JNVU; MBM engineering college; Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, PSG college of Technology) attended the workshop.

6th January 2020, The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance along with the Microbial Physiology Group organised an outreach programme for research scientists in the Jodhpur area at IIT Jodhpur. The programme was aimed at biomedical and health researchers and covered various funding opportunities available under its aegis.

6th January 2020, The microbial physiology group organized the "Explorer Series" a popular science talk series designed by the biomedical research-funding charity The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance – to inspire young students to the excitement and value of science. Four scientists—Kavita Babu, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Tavpritesh Sethi, IIIT Delhi, Shankar Manoharan, IIT Jodhpur and Geeta Trilok-Kumar, Institute of Home Economics, New Delhi, took close to 200 school students and undergraduates through their adventurous journeys as scientists.

July 2019, Aditi, Aastha and Lavanya join the lab. Welcome !

15th - 17th July 2019, Shankar was nominated to attend the DELTAS Annual Africa meeting in Dakar, Senegal.

5th - 8th March 2019, Ardhendu was selected to participate in the International Symposium on Antibiotic Resistance-One Health Perspective (AROHP), conducted as a part of the 22nd ADNAT convention at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Congratulations !

July 2018, Ardhendu joined the lab. Welcome !

7th July 2018, Shankar participated in a workshop on Rapid Pathogen Identification by Nanopore Sequencing, organized by Genotypic Technology, Bengaluru, India.

17th - 19th May 2018, We attended the India Alliance Annual Fellows Meeting held at New Delhi, India.