People
KARTHIK RAMAN
Current Members
![Aarti Ravindran](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/aarti-photo-square.jpg)
Aarti Ravindran (Post-doctoral fellow)
I obtained my M.Sc. (Hons.) Biological Sciences and M.E. Biotechnology from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan. My doctoral programme was completed at Anna University after which I continued there as a Guest Faculty for two years. I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher on environmental microbiomes.
![Barathi L](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/barathi.jpg)
Barathi L (Post-baccalaureate fellow)
I hold a Master’s degree in Molecular Virology and have over three years of experience in computer-aided drug design and in vitro drug evaluation. My focus is on metagenomic data analysis, specifically identifying core microbiomes and preterm birth prediction.
Chaitranjali Yadla (IBSE Post-doctoral Fellow)
![Debomita Chakraborty](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Debomita.jpg)
Debomita Chakraborty (PhD student, jointly with Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy)
![Indumathi P](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Indumathi.jpg)
Indumathi P (PhD student & Prime Minister's Research Fellow, jointly with Dr. Himanshu Sinha)
I have completed my B.Tech from KCT, Coimbatore. I pursued my masters from IIT Guwahati, wherein I worked in the production of ovine angiotensinogen in Pichia pastoris. I am currently working in collaboration with Dr. Karthik Raman and Dr. Himanshu Sinha. My work focuses on modeling the gut microbiota of infants and investigating interaction between the microbes in the gut.
![Lavanya Raajaraam](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lavanya.jpg)
Lavanya Raajaraam (PhD student)
I completed my B.Tech in Industrial Biotechnology from SASTRA University in 2017. I am doing my MS + PhD in Computational Systems Biology. I am currently working on simultaneous overproduction of multiple metabolites.
![Muthuarunachalam S](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BT22M005_muthuarunachalam_formal-e1719218342906.jpg)
Muthuarunachalam S (MTech Student)
![Maziya Ibrahim](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Maziya.jpg)
Maziya Ibrahim (Institute Post-doctoral Fellow)
![Pratyay Sengupta](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Pratyay-e1609746403845.jpeg)
Pratyay Sengupta (PhD student & Prime Minister's Research Fellow)
I am Pratyay from the 'city of joy' Kolkata. I completed my B.Tech in Biotechnology from NIT Durgapur in 2020. I was also selected for INSA Summer Fellow 2019. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD in Computational Systems Biology. My research interests lie primarily in integrated multi-omics analysis to find potential therapeutic targets in disease types. Apart from research, I have a keen interest in drawing, photography and travelling.
Pradeep Melpakkam (Dual degree student (jointly with Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy))
Preetha Ravi (Bachelor's Project - International)
![Shradha Sharma](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Shradha-e1688464706988.jpg)
Shradha Sharma (PhD Student)
I hold a B.Tech degree in Biotechnology and an M.Tech degree in Biomedical Engineering. My current research revolves around investigating the microbiome of coral reefs in the Red Sea. Specifically, I aim to compare the microbial populations of healthy and diseased coral in order to understand the differences and propose potential probiotics for the recovery of diseased corals. In addition to my research, I enjoy indulging in anime, reading books, and gym.
![Shobhan Karthick M S](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Shobhan-e1719218628432.jpg)
Shobhan Karthick M S (Dual Degree Student)
Shobhan Karthick Muthamilselvi Sivabalan is a 4th year undergraduate from IIT Madras pursuing his dual degree in Biological Engineering, with a specialisation in Computational Biology. His love for biology and craze for computers have led him to the field of computational biology. His research interests include metabolic modelling and network-based analysis of microbial communities.
![Srikrishnan B](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SrikrishnanB-e1699926526543.jpg)
Srikrishnan B (MS Student)
I completed B.Tech in Biotechnology from SASTRA University in 2020. My current focus is on reconstruction of genome-scale models. I am also interested in studying microbiomes. I enjoy buying books and watching cricket.
![Tanisha Malpani](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tanisha-e1700485369287.jpg)
Tanisha Malpani (Post-baccalaureate fellow)
I am a masters graduate from the Indian Institue of Science, Bangalore, with a major in Biology. I am interested in integrating computational tools and methodologies with biological contexts. My current work focuses on the study of synthetic lethals in genome scale metabolic models of bacteria. There is a lot to learn from how bacteria reroute their metabolism in response to changing environments. When I am not working, you can find me reading or playing badminton.
![Vijaya Yuvaram Singh](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/yuvaram-photo-e1687431141435.jpg)
Vijaya Yuvaram Singh (Post-baccalaureate fellow)
A data scientist who is interested in biology. I have a Bachelor's in Mechatronics and worked on AI, ML, and DL projects. My current focus is to apply statistics to biological data to understand the patterns hidden in it.
Alumni (post-docs)
![Aswathy Raghu](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Image_Aswathy-e1609755151423.jpeg)
Aswathy Raghu (IBSE Post-doctoral Fellow)
![Devika N T](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Devika.jpg)
Devika N T (Institute Post-doctoral Fellow)
I work on Genome Scale Metabolic Models of Gut Microbes that can provide insights into the role of metabolic modelling towards human health and disease.
![Maziya Ibrahim](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Maziya.jpg)
Maziya Ibrahim (Institute Post-doctoral Fellow)
Alumni (graduate students)
![Prem Jagadeesan](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Prem-J.jpg)
Prem Jagadeesan (PhD student, jointly with Prof. Arun Tangirala)
Prem's thesis, entitled "System Identification of Biological Processes: A Few Crucial Challenges and Remedies" represents a unique synthesis of key systems theory concepts in the light of biology. His PhD degree was awarded in 2024. Following the submission of his thesis in 2023, Prem went on to Prof. Shweta Singh's lab in Purdue for a post-doc.
![Priyan Bhattacharya](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/priyan-e1469884048464.jpg)
Priyan Bhattacharya (PhD student, jointly with Prof. Arun Tangirala)
Priyan defended his thesis titled "Systems-Theoretic Approaches to Discover Adaption-capable Biological Networks" in 2023. His thesis encompassed developing several methods based on systems theory to understand and discover biological networks capable of adaptation. Priyan went on to pursue a post-doc with Prof. Rajanikanth Vadigepalli at Thomas Jefferson University.
![Dinesh Kumar K B](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Dinesh.jpg)
Dinesh Kumar K B (MS student)
Dinesh's defended his MS thesis, titled "A protocol for studying metabolic interactions in microbial communities using graph-based approaches" in 2023. His thesis involved developing methods to predict various features of microbiomes by analysing the interactions among the microbes within them. He utilises a combination of network-based and constraint-based approaches to model microbial communities. Dinesh went on to pursue a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, after a brief stint as a researcher in our lab (on a project funded by Hindustan Unilever Limited), following his MS.
![Malvika Sudhakar](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Malvika.png)
Malvika Sudhakar (PhD student, jointly with Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy)
Malvika completed her B.Tech Bioinformatics from DY Patil University, Mumbai followed by a M.Tech Biotechnology from BITS Pilani, Goa. Her thesis was titled "Machine learning on multi-omic data for identifying driver genes in cancer". Malvika went on to pursue a post-doc at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Denmark Technological University (DTU).
![Shayantan Banerjee](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/shayantan-e1469883813540.jpg)
Shayantan Banerjee (MS student, jointly with Dr. B Ravindran)
Shayantan defended his MS thesis titled "Sequence neighborhoods enable reliable prediction of pathogenic mutations in cancer genomes" in 2021. Shayantan went on to pursue a PhD from KCDH, IIT Bombay.
![Gayathri S](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Gayathri-S_IITM-e1469798016866.jpg)
Gayathri S (PhD Student)
Gayathri did her B.Tech (Hons.) in Biotechnology from SASTRA University, then worked as systems engineer in TCS for 3 years. She then pursued her studies with an M.Tech in Biopharmaceutical Technology from Anna University. Her research work mainly focuses on understanding the influence of regulation on metabolism. Her PhD (awarded in 2021) was titled "Understanding the design principles of metabolic networks". Gayathri was the first PhD scholar at IIT Madras to be awarded the IIT Madras Institute Blues Award. She was also the recipient of the Institute Research Award (2019).
![Aparajitha Srinivasan](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Aparajitha.jpg)
Aparajitha Srinivasan (PhD student, jointly with Dr. Smita Srivastava)
Aparajitha's PhD (awarded in 2020) was in the area of plant metabolic engineering. Her thesis, entitled "Strategies for enhanced production of alpha-tocopherol in cell culture of Helianthus annuus l." encompasses metabolic modeling, genetic engineering, plant tissue culture and various optimization strategies for enhancement of α-tocopherol (Vitamin E) in Helianthus annuus (Sunflower).
![Aarthi Ravikrishnan](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AarthiRavikrishnan.png)
Aarthi Ravikrishnan (PhD student, jointly with Dr. Smita Srivastava)
Aarthi completed her B. Tech (hons.) in Industrial Biotechnology from SASTRA University in 2011 and M. Tech in Biotechnology from Anna University in 2013. Aarthi's PhD thesis (awarded in 2019) was titled "Understanding microbial interactions in communities through an integrated computational and experimental framework". Aarthi's thesis was awarded the "Best PhD Thesis in Data Sciences".
![Beethika Tripathi](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/beethika-e1469883952182.jpg)
Beethika Tripathi (MS student, jointly with Dr. B Ravindran)
Beethika's thesis was titled "Applications of Community Detection and Link Prediction on Multi-relational Networks", and her MS degree was awarded in 2019. She went on to Microsoft India (Hyderabad).
![Karthik Azhagesan](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/karthik.png)
Karthik Azhagesan (MS Student, jointly with Dr. B Ravindran)
Karthik Azhagesan's MS thesis (awarded in 2018) was titled " Machine Learning Approaches to Predict Essential Genes Across Organisms".
![Abinaya Badri](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/34a1009.jpg)
Abinaya Badri (MS student, jointly with Prof. Guhan Jayaraman)
Abinaya's MS thesis (awarded in 2017) was titled "Investigation of Metabolic Capabilities of Recombinant Lactococcus lactis for Hyaluronan Production Using a Genome-scale Metabolic Model".
![Aditya Pratapa](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/aditya-e1571911625920.jpg)
Aditya Pratapa (MS student, jointly with Dr. Shankar Balachandran)
Aditya worked on applying high-performance computing techniques to the analysis of complex metabolic networks. Aditya's MS thesis (awarded in 2015) was titled "Design of Efficient Algorithms to Identify Synthetic Lethals in Metabolic Networks".
Alumni (major projects)
- Anirudh Rao (Young Research Fellow, 2023-24)
- Megha Sivakumar (Anna University, Bachelor’s project)
- Muthuarunachalam S (MTech Project, 2023-24)
- Shobhan Karthick M S (Dual Degree Project, 2023-24)
- Prashanth Ramanathan (Dual Degree Project, 2023-24, with Prof. B. Ravindran, Computer Science and Engineering)
- Shaswata Modak (IISER Thiruvananthapuram, Bachelor’s Project)
- Abhay Bhat (PES University, Bachelor’s Project)
- Rajagopal Subramaniam C (Young Research Fellow, 2022-23)
- Amrita Mahesh (Dual Degree Project, 2022-23, with Dr. Himanshu Sinha; Young Research fellow, 2020-21 )
- Hemanth Ram (Dual Degree Project, 2021-22, with Prof. B. Ravindran, Computer Science and Engineering)
- Lakshmi Chanemougam (SASTRA, Bachelor’s Project)
- Sreeharsha Peesapati (Dual Degree Project, 2021-22, with Prof. Arun Tangirala, Chemical Engineering)
- Prashant Govindarajan (Dual Degree Project, 2021-22, with Prof. B. Ravindran, Computer Science and Engineering)
- Harish Manoharan (Young Research fellow, 2021-22)
- Keerthika Moorthy (Junior Research fellow, 2019-22)
- Shreyansh Umale (RBCDSAI Post-baccalaureate fellow, 2020-21)
- Rachita Kumar (RBCDSAI Post-baccalaureate fellow, 2020-21)
- Sai Sruthi A (IBSE Post-baccalaureate fellow, 2020-21)
- Roshni Shetty (Undergraduate Research Project, UGRP 2020-21)
- Sahana Gangadharan (Undergrad Research, 2020-21)
- Sowmya Manojna (Undergrad Research, 2020-21)
- Sanjaay Balakrishnan (MTech Project, 2020-21)
- Rohan Jebin Anbiah (Dual Degree Project, 2020-21)
- Raghav Moar (Dual Degree Project, 2020-21)
- Burhan Sabuwala (Undergrad Research, 2019-20)
- Anjana A S (Project Associate, 2019-20)
- Anand A R (Dual Degree Project, 2019-20)
- Rohini J S (Dual Degree Project, 2019-20)
- Shreya Swaminathan Harita (Dual Degree Project, 2019-20)
- Rachita Kumar (SASTRA, Master’s Project, 2019)
- Priyanka Maripuri (Junior Research Fellow, 2017-19)
- Abhijeet Mavi (Dual Degree Project, 2018-19)
- Vishnu Narayan (Dual Degree Project, 2018-19)
- Likith Reddy (Junior Research Fellow, 2017-18)
- Muthukumarasamy Saravanan (Dual Degree Project, 2017-18)
- Saransh Umale (Dual Degree Project, 2017-18, with Dr. Raghunathan Rengasamy in Chemical Engineering)
- Pradeep Natarajan (Dual Degree Project, 2017-18, with Dr. Raghunathan Rengasamy in Chemical Engineering)
- Omkar Mohite (Dual Degree Project, 2016-17)
- Anjul Tyagi (IIIT Vadodara, BTech Project, 2017)
- Madhumitha Velu (PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, BTech Project, 2017)
- Aparnna Suresh (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16)
- Smrithi Krishnan (Project Associate, 2015-16)
- Sivaratna Kumari Narisetty (Project Associate, 2015-16)
- Vandanashree Muralidharan (SASTRA, Dual Degree Project, 2016)
- Dileep Kishore (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16)
- Manasa Surakala (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16, with Dr. Guhan Jayaraman, Biotechnology)
- Aravind Sankar (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16, with Dr. Sayan Ranu in Computer Science)
- Abhishek Sivaram (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16, with Dr. Raghunathan Rengasamy in Chemical Engineering)
- Pallavi Gudipati (Dual Degree Project, 2015-16, Dr. B Ravindran in Computer Science)
- Pankaj Kumar (Dual Degree Project, 2014-15, with Dr. Sayan Ranu in Computer Science)
- Parthasarathy Gopavarapu (Dual Degree Project, 2014-15, Dr. B Ravindran in Computer Science)
- Narasimhan Balakrishnan (BTech Project, 2014-15, with Dr. Arun Tangirala in Chemical Engineering)
- Adarsh Chavakula (BTech Project, 2014-15, with Dr. Shankar Narasimhan in Chemical Engineering)
- Balaji Kumar (BTech Project, 2014-15)
- Srikiran Chandrasekaran (BTech Project, 2014-15)
- Sanjan T P Gupta (BTech Project, 2014-15)
- Aravindabharathi Ramakrishnan (BTech Project, 2014-15)
- Murali Karthikeyan (Project Associate, 2014-15)
- Priyanka Barman (Project Associate, 2013-15)
- Nandita Damaraju (BTech Project, 2013-14)
- Govind Krishna Joshi (Dual-degree project, 2013-14)
- Raghavendran Partha (Dual-degree project, 2013-14)
- Sagar Laygude (Dual-degree project, 2012-13)
- Namrata Kamat (Dual-degree project, 2012-13)
- Aditya Sriganesh (BTech Project, 2012-13)
- Shashank Garlapati (BTech Project, 2012-13)
- Karthik Azhagesan (GCT, Bachelor’s project, 2011-12)
Alumni (short-term projects)
- Akshat Pandey (RBCDSAI Summer Fellowship, 2024)
- Ganishk (RBCDSAI Summer Fellowship, 2024)
- Nandita Nair (IITM Summer Fellowship, 2024)
- Sujit Chaugule (ICT, IITM Summer Fellowship, 2024)
- Shreeya Nallaboina (Summer Fellow, 2024)
- Vakula Venkatesh, Vaishnave K V (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2019)
- Madhuvanthi Muliya (SASTRA, summer project, 2019)
- Vasudha Balaji (SASTRA, summer project, 2019)
- Arinjoy Dutta (Anna University, summer project, 2019)
- Aditya G (BITS, IITM Summer Fellowship, 2019)
- Sachita Nishal (BITS Pilani, Goa, summer project, 2018)
- Himanshu Aggarwal (IISER Mohali, IITM Summer Fellowship, 2018)
- S. V. Shanmugha Balan, Arjun Swaminathan, Yoseph Daniel, G. Namasivayam (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2018)
- Balaji Ganesh (NITT, summer project, 2017)
- Deshmaa R T (PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, IITM Summer Fellowship, 2017)
- Harshavardhini Balakrishnan & Pranav Subramaniam (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2017)
- Anna Cherian (IISER Bhopal, Short summer project, 2016)
- Rakshitha Arun & Keerthanya R (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2016)
- Anjul Tyagi (IIIT Vadodara, NNMCB Summer Fellow, 2016)
- Rakshitha Arun & Keerthanya R (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2016)
- Vasudha Balaji & Apoorva (School students of Vidya Mandir, Summer 2016)
- Garima Chuphal & Vishhvak Srinivasan (School students, under the Research Science Initiative (Chennai) Programme 2015)
- Srikar Srinivas & Ritwik Senapati (School students of Vidya Mandir, Summer 2014)
- Hari Prasanna (SVCE, IITM Summer Fellowship, 2013)
- Abhishek V (NITK, summer project, 2013)
- Nitish Rath (NITR, summer project, 2013)
- Kumar Gaurav (IITM Summer Fellowship, 2012)
- Aiswarya Jayaprakash (IITM Summer Fellowship, 2012)
![](https://home.iitm.ac.in/kraman/lab/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DSC_0213-Large-e1502102481628-1024x513.jpg)