Human and Animal Microbiome Engineering

Dr. Dhanasekaran Dharumadurai is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University. He has experience in fields of actinobacteriology and mycology. He has 16 years teaching experience and was awarded the UGC-Raman Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the University Grant Commission. His current research focus is microbiome profiling. He has filed two Indian patents, deposited 139 nucleotide sequences and 7 metagenome sequences, bacterial draft genome sequence in GenBank, and 5 bioactive compounds in Pubchem. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, North American Mycology Association, International Society for symbiosis, Mycological Society of India, National Academy of Biological Sciences, Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments, Society of Chemical and Synthetic Biology, Microbiologist Society. Dr. A. Sankara narayanan is an Associate Professor and Head in the Department of Life Sciences, Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence, Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India, from June 2021 onwards. His current research focus is on Microbiome studies, fermented food products and Environmental Microbiology. He has published so far 17 books under different international publishers, 60 chapters and 80 research articles in International and National journals of repute, guided 5 PhDs, 16 MPhil, scholars, and operated 5 funded projects in Microbiology. From 2002 to 2015, he worked as an Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology, K.S.R. College of Arts and Science, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu and in August 2015-May 2021 he was associated with Uka Tarsadia University, Surat, Gujarat, India. He has been awarded with the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and The National Academy of Sciences (TNAS) sponsored summer research fellowship for young teachers consecutively for 3 years and his name is included as a Mentor in DST-Mentors/Resource persons for summer/ winter camps and other INSPIRE initiatives, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi. He is a grant reviewer in the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), UK. He is an active member in Editorial boards of various National and International Journals. He is Doctoral Committee member, Board of Study member in Microbiology in various colleges and Universities in India, and Reviewer in many International reputed Journals. One among of his edited book received Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) Award from one of the International Publishers in the year 2020. This OAT Award represents the highest calibre of scholarly titles, overall excellence in presentation and importance relative to other literature in the field. His name was included in the World Scientists and University Rankings for the Year 2023; ranking list is released by AD Scientific Index. Dr. Priyanka Sarkar completed her PhD in Bioengineering and Technology, jointly from Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) and Gauhati University in 2019. After which, she completed her Post Doctoral training at Asian Healthcare Foundation, Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG Hospitals). Since her PhD, her research has delved into the intricate relationship between the gut microbiome (the community of microorganisms residing in our gut) and its impact on human health, particularly focusing on chronic diseases and immune function. She has longstanding interests in decoding the cross-talk between gut microbiome and host health. She has published more than 12 research papers in these areas of research and has contributed to 4 book chapters and 2 review articles in the field of microbiome. She has been serving as a reviewer in many journals. She has been honoured with international and national awards for her research works [DST-SERB Core Research Grant (2021, as a co-PI), Young Scientist Awards (2021)]. She has successfully completed research projects from national funding agencies such as SERB-DST, and guided students for their doctoral and master's degrees.