People

Mrs. R. Mahalakshmi  

Mrs Mahalakshmi is an external PhD student joined in our lab in July 2015. Her research work focuses on monitoring and assessment of environmental pollutants in Vellore regions. 

Ms. Ramya Juliet 

Ms Ramya Juliet has joined the lab as a PhD student in December 2020 after completing her Master's in Biomedical Genetics from Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India.  

Her research activities include Isolation and Characterization of bacteriophages against Carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) specially focusing on multidrug resistant Klebsiella sp., Phages being the best alternative to combat antibiotic resistance, her studies also focus on the antibiofilm activity of phages and phage-antibiotic synergy to overcome phage resistance in bacteria. 

Ms. Bershiyal S

Ms. Bershiyal S has joined the lab as a Ph.D. scholar in the month of July 2023 after completing her Master's in Biotechnology from Alagappa University, Tamil Nadu, India. Her research activities include isolating and characterizing bacteriophages against clinical Multi-Drug Resistant Escherichia coli bacteria. 

Ms. Oishi Mitra

Ms. Oishi Mitra joined the lab as a  Ph.D. scholar in July 2023, after completing her Master's in Biotechnology from VIT University, India. Her research area includes isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against XDR and MDR Acinetobacter baumanii clinical pathogens collected from all over India.

Ms. Rithviha T

Ms. Rithviha joined the lab as a  Ph.D. scholar in January 2024, after completing her Bachelor's in Biotechnology from Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, India. Her research area includes isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against XDR and MDR Psuedomonas aeruginosa clinical pathogens collected from all over India.

Ms. Nissy A Bovas 

Ms. Nissy A Bovas joined the lab as a  lab Assistant  in July 2024, after completing her Master's in Microbiology from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kerala India. Her research area includes isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against XDR and MDR ESKAPE clinical pathogens collected from all over India.

Dr. Vankadari Aditya - Project Research Scientist II

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Dr. Vankadari Aditya joined the lab in 2025 as a Project Research Scientist II, focusing on phage isolation and characterization against skin and musculoskeletal infection pathogens. His Ph.D. explored antimicrobial resistance and pathogen adaptation using transcriptomics. Prior to this, he worked on carbapenem resistance at Manipal University. He also serves as a peer reviewer for journals like BMC Microbiology, Brazilian Journal of Microbiology, and Frontiers

Ms. Ramya Juliet - Project Research Scientist II

Ms. Ramya Juliet has been continuing her work in the laboratory as a Project Research Scientist II since January 2025, with a primary focus on the isolation and characterization of bacteriophages targeting pathogens associated with skin and musculoskeletal infections.

Her research activities center on the isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), with a special emphasis on multidrug-resistant Klebsiella species.

Recognizing the potential of phages as a powerful alternative to combat antibiotic resistance, her studies further explore the antibiofilm activity of phages and investigate phage-antibiotic synergy as a strategy to overcome emerging phage resistance in bacterial populations. 

Ms. Prasanna Devi T - Project Technical Support III

Ms. Prasanna Devi T joined the lab as a Project Technical support III in January 2025, after completing her Master's in Biotechnology from Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamilnadu, India. Her research area includes isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against drug resistant clinical Gram Positive Bacteria.

Mr. T. Saravana Kumar - Project Technical Support III

Mr. T. Saravana Kumar joined the laboratory as a Project Technical Support III under the ICMR-funded project in January 2025, following the completion of his Master’s degree in Microbiology from Madurai Kamaraj University, India.

His research focuses on the isolation and characterization of bacteriophages targeting extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) ESKAPE clinical pathogens collected from diverse regions across India.

Mr. Subramanyam Lokesh Kumar - Project Technical Support II

Mr. Subramanyam Lokesh Kumar joined the laboratory as a Project Technical Support II under the ICMR-funded project in feb 2025. he has completed of his Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Osmania University, India.His Role is mainy centered around the collection of sewages around india. which are propable phage sources to isolate and charecterize phages . 

Dr. Prasanth Manohar (2014-2019)

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Mr Prasanth M has joined the lab in July 2014 as a PhD student. He completed his PhD in July 2019. 

Currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate (NIH-NIGMS) in the lab of Dr Ryland Young at the Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. Previously, he holds (2020-22) a Postdoctoral Scientist position in Prof. Sebastian Leptihn's group at The University of Edinburgh Institute of Zhejiang University (ZJU-UoE), Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Haining, PRC.

Dr. Eniyan Kandasamy (2018 - 2020)

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Dr. Eniyan who obtained his PhD from Delhi University has joined our lab as Postdoctoral research fellow in April 2018. During his PhD, he worked on identification of potential drug targets for tuberculosis. He also worked on isolation and characterization of mycobacteriophages and its endolysins.

In our lab, he worked on exploring the importance of dcw operon genes of mycobacteria and its function.

Dr. Shanthini Thamaraiselvan  (2014-2021)

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Ms Shanthini T has joined the lab as an Integrated PhD student in July 2014, after completing her B.Tech in Biotechnology from Aruni Engineering College (aff. Anna University), India.

Her research interest is on molecular characterization of colistin and tigecycline resistant Gram-negative clinical pathogens. It is necessary to understand the resistance mechanism because no antibiotic has cleared out the resistance even last resort antibiotics. She is currently working on molecular characterization of hypervirulent colistin-resistant Klebsiella species and screening its putative virulence genes.  

Mr. Madhav MR  

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Mr Madhav who obtained his Masters in Biotechnology from VIT University, India. He has joined the lab in December 2017 as a M.Tech (by research) student. 

His research work focuses on elucidating the antibiotic resistance pattern among the clinical isolates and to identify the lytic phages as a therapeutic agent against aquaculture pathogenesis. His goal is to isolate and to characterize the bacteriophages targeting Vibrio species. 

Dr. Archana Loganathan (2017-2023)

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Ms Archana has joined in the lab as a PhD student in July 2017 after completing her Masters in Applied Microbiology from VIT University, India.  

Her research activities includes, studying the resistome profile of MRSA and other Gram-positive bacteria. MRSA infection being one of the recurrent infection in hospitals which could not be treated by the last resort antibiotic, her study mainly focuses on isolating the lytic phages for the treatment of MRSA infections and also studying their sub-lineage that results in hetero-resistance resistome profile in MRSA infection and molecular analysis of those cognate sub-lineages and applying the phage therapy as a therapeutical option during various treatment regimens.

Dr. Shri Natrajan  

Mr Shri Natrajan joined as an external PhD student in our lab in July 2014. His research work focuses on the isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. As an external PhD student, his research works were carried out at Anthem Biosciences, Bangalore.