I did my Phd from BITS PILANI (Topic-“ Functional Characterization of Recombinant α-crystallin of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv” ) after masters in Biological Sciences along with B Pharm.

From my school days I was interested in research and a Nature paper I studied in my 3rd year inspired me to take me a career of research especially directed towards health care

Research Interests

Molecular Biology: I am interested in studying about key proteins involved in disease especially antigenic proteins with the aim of creating new vaccines or diagnostics.

I am also interested in studying about the impact of immune status on response to bacterial pathogens especially secondary infections like in case of mycobacteria

Amongst these I would like to pursue research on gut mucosa and in the long term help develop theoretical models which could help diagnose key parameters that could help in global health care

My past research experience has been on malarial proteins involved in hemoglobin degradation with the aim of making enzymes as drug targets especially the proteases

I have also worked on anti bacterial broad spectrum antibiotics projects specifically on helicase E.coli Dna B which can be developed into a new drug target

I have also worked on a research project involved in scale up of process development for a diabetes product Insulin scaling up a recombinant process from gram scale to Kg scale. 

Later on I worked on contract research processes for IgM and IgG purification for radiolabelled antibodies while setting up a new lab in Goa an wholly owned subsidiary of a US based CRO . 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• 
  Freelance content creator
  (November 2019- ) Creating online educational content for clients in the educational sector.
• Online tutor
  (May 2020- ) Teaching postgraduate students of biotechnology
• Knowledge Partner (August 2020- ) Creating courses for undergraduate students

GOA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

1. (September 2016- April 2017) Contributory Teacher Taught theory courses like Food Biotechnology, Scientific Writing and Communication Skills for 1 semester
2. (September-November 2016). Taught theory courses like Environmental Biotechnology, Biosafety and IPR, Bioentreprenuership, Aquaculture
   Technology and Marine Pharmacology,
3. (Dec 2016-April 2017) Guided 4 students to do MSc Dissertation.

BITS PILANI /KK BIRLA, GOA CAMPUS

1. (December 2009 – December 2014) Visiting Faculty
   Taught theory courses like General Biology for five semesters, Bioconversion Technology for three semesters and Recombinant DNA Technology for one semester. Handled biology laboratory for seven semesters and worked as an Instructor in Charge for two semesters.
   Explored and implemented innovative teaching techniques to accelerate learning process among students. Instructed students about the latest developments, principles and concepts of the field. Supervised the batch of students & maintained decorum amongst students. Managed the class and supervised students as per the Institute’s policies, procedures and applicable laws. Prepared lectures and assignments/ examinations, graded them in a timely manner, and provided feedback to the students. Actively worked with lecturers to develop, maintain high curriculum standards, and devise mission statements, and set performance goals and objectives.  Collaborated with fellow lecturers on lesson plans and performed administrative tasks viz. recording attendance, managing student portfolios and providing individual assistance to the students. Identified areas of improvement while working with students and coached them to improve their performance consistently.
2. (Jan 2015 - Jun 2019) Research Scholar, Biological Sciences. Taught 16 lectures of Bioconversion Technology and ME Biotechnology course
3. (August 2015-Dec 2015) Was Laboratory Instructor for Genetic Engineering
4. (August 2016-December 2016); Genetic Engineering and Experimental Techniques
5. (January 2017 –April 2017) Biological Laboratory for 2 semesters 

Sample of Projects Supervised:

1. Application of image processing in biological processes (Angad Sachdev, Krishnan), January - April 2013
2. Software design for the optimization of biochemical process including storage of iterations and economic analysis of a product (Siddhant Srivastav), August - December 2012
3. Bio process control system and automation (Gurumurthi Ahad), August –December 2012
4. Downstream Purification of IgG (Soumya Rajan Sarangi, Rohit Shankar), August–December 2012
5. Use of software in DNA quantification (Adith Vastraaad and Shirish Kumar), January - April 2014
6. Use of software in Molecular Biology (Annesha Satpathi, Kapil Deep), January - April 2014
7. Use of neural network tools to predict of possibility of obtaining a clone (Natesh, Rohit Shiv Kumar, Siddarth, Sam), January-April 2014

DHEMPE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE MIRAMAR, GOA

1. (June 2009 – December 2009)
   Lecturer - Biotechnology
   Managed B.Sc. Biotechnology practical (Botany) for first year; B.Sc. Biotechnology practical, Environmental
   Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering for third year.

GOODWIN BIOTECHNOLOGY INDIA, GOA

(September 2006 – May 2009) Scientist I

• Steered the R&D team working as a Contract Research organization and involved in servicing clients in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry with a team of 2 personnel.
• Accountable for undertaking assignments in research & managing analytical method development support for the study.
• Performed research and data collection; conducted analysis to determine client’s technical and strategic needs. Analyzed, summarized and presented results for all research projects.
• Reviewed ongoing research for trends. Provided insight on these findings and ensured key findings are shared with appropriate internal audiences.
• Identified issues and formed hypotheses, formulated and implemented solutions.
• Established a new lab in Goa, India, the subsidiary of Florida-based, Goodwin Biotechnology Inc.
• Undertook two and half-month training at GBI USA in fall 2006 to acquire experience in c-GMP.
• Managed projects related to immunology specifically antibody purification and characterization and ELISA development.
• Prepared Standard Operating Procedures for the new lab in India, obtained IQ, PQ and OQ documentation.

BIOCON INDIA PVT LTD, BANGALORE

(July 2001 – July 2006) Research Scientist

Administered the research & development team to develop new biological products of therapeutic value for the market with a team of 7 personnel

Projects Handled:

1) Title: To develop an industrial scale processes for making therapeutic proteins
Team Size: 7
Scope: The project was undertaken to develop lab scale process that could be scaled up to kg scale for production

Role: Semi preparative scale up (10gm scale) protein purification experiments

Validated batches of downstream processes to establish proof of concept & for toxicity testing.
Participated in campaign to make clinical grade material for testing
Process development & optimized key ion exchange & reverse phase HPLC Steps Impurity purification for submission to Quality Dept.

2) Title: To work on Contract Projects for customers working in the Drug Discovery Industry (Jul’01 –Apr’02)
Team Size: 3
Scope: The project was undertaken to study immunogenic proteins associated with cancer for expressing the protein in a soluble form

ASTRA ZENECA INDIA PVT LIMITED, BANGALORE

(January 1995 – July 2001) Research Assistant/ Research Associate

Worked on Drug Discovery programs for malaria & antibiotics with a team of 5 personnel Possess knowledge of Cloning, Expression & Enzymatic Assays of Bacterial Proteins.
Facilitated screening 20000 compounds for an Anti-Malarial Drug Discovery program and in developing Enzymatic Assays for Anti Malarial Drug Discovery program and Anti Bacterial program.

Project Handled:

1) Title: Anti-Malarial Project for development of Novel Anti-Malarial Drugs (Jan’95-Dec’99)
Team Size: 5
Scope: The project was undertaken to specify enzymes of malarial parasite, P. Falciparum with the idea of making rationally designed drugs. It was done by targeting development of an inhibitor against 3 protease – aspartic (Plasmepsin I, II) & cysteine (Plasmepsin II) of P. Falciparum
Role: Managed Cloning, Hyper expression of Proteases
Refolded E. Coli inclusion body pellets to send to Queensland
Pharmacological Research Institute, Australia to screen natural extracts anti malarial. Set up assays which can be adapted to medium and high throughput Format
Performed secondary screening of compounds identified from the 20000 screening campaign

2) Title: Anti-bacterial Project (Helicase - DnaB) for the development of a broad-spectrum anti- bacterial for use in hospital infection & community care (Dec’99-Mar’01)
Team Size: 3
Scope: The project targeted the E. Coli Helicase–DnaB, Primary Replicate Helicase - The goal was to express DnaB in a soluble form and develop a gel based radioactive assay for the same which could later be used to screen potential anti bacterial compounds

EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS

1. PhD thesis “ Functional Characterization of Recombinant α-crystallin of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv” BITS, Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus (2012-2019)

       2. Masters in Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (1989-1994)

       3. Bachelors in Pharmacy, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani(1989-1994)

Awards/ Recognitions/Certifications:

⦁ Awarded with the Biocontribute Award (Team Award) in Dec’03; the team launched a therapeutic molecule for diabetes in market in Nov’04.
⦁ Filed 2 patents in US,1 European patent(14 countries) and 2 Indian patents filed for manufacture of oral insulin.
⦁ One of my students Rohit Shankar secured admission into Cornell University based on my recommendation. Others secured admission into Indiana University and Carnegie Mellon University.
⦁ Passed 3 courses in Courseera-Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects (McMaster University & University of California San Diego);Get Organised:How to be a together Teacher(Relay Graduate School of Education); The Challenges of Global Health( Duke University)
⦁ Attended Workshop on Chromatographic separations conducted by BIO-RAD at UICT, Mumbai,2004
⦁ Attended Fast-Trac Workshop on Chromatography conducted by GE-Healthcare at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2005
⦁ Passed ISO 14000 Lead auditor course of NQA conducted by Choda Leadership Centre, Hyderabad ,July 2006
⦁ Attended Millipore Filtration School ,2007
⦁ Passed KSET exam for Lecturer in Life Sciences, 2018

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

⦁ Gautam Krishnan and Utpal Roy, “A New Functional Model for Prediction of Chaperone Activity of the Recombinant M. tb Acr (α-Crystallin) Using Insulin as Substrate,” Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, vol. 2019, Article ID 2532045, 18 pages, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2532045.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31031872

⦁ Krishnan, G., Roy, U. (2019). Role of Molecular Interactions and Oligomerization in Chaperone Activity of Recombinant Acr from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Iranian Journal of Biotechnology, 17(3), 55-62. doi: 10.29252/ijb.2370

⦁ Krishnan G and Roy U. Prediction of recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis α-crystallin oligomer chaperone activity using polynomial graphs]. F1000Research 2020, 7:1801 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.16328.2)

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

⦁ Title of paper “Cloning and expression of antigenic proteins of pathogenic organisms: special focus on Mycobacterial family” by Dr Utpal Roy, Gautam Krishnan, Sam C., Joy B., Natesh, Siddharth T., Rohit Shivkumar presented at NATCON 2014 – Feb 7th, 2015, Mumbai

⦁ Conference presentation: Key note speaker “A functional model for predicting in vitro chaperone activity of M. tb Acr” at 3rd International Conference of Clinical Microbiology, Kyoto, Japan, May 1st - 2nd, 2019 Clin Microbiology,2019,Vol 8 doi 10.4172/2327-5073-C2-047

PATENTS FILED

1. Nitesh Dave, Partha Hazra, Anuj Goel, Nita Roy, Anand Khedkar, Harish Iyer, Gautam Krishnan, H S Manjunath, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Govindasamy Manikam, Goldy Sachdev, Mayank Garg: Process for the preparation of insulin conjugate IN -105. Biocon. Nov, 15 2011: US8058391 (B2)
2. Partha Hazra, Manjunath Hadavanahalli Shivarudraiah, Anand Khedkar, Harish Iyer, Nitesh Dave, Gautam Krishnan, and Shrikumar Suryanarayan: Preparation of insulin conjugates. Biocon. Jul, 12 2011: US7977454 (B2)
3. Nitesh Dave, Partha Hazra, Anuj Goel, Nita Roy, Anand Khedkar, Harish Iyer, Gautam Krishnan, H. S. Manjunath, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Govindasamy Manikam, Goldy Sachdev, Mayank Garg, Process for the Preparation of insulin conjugates EP 1934252 B1-Renewed in 14 European countries as of 2018. Same as CN101291952A, CN101291952B, EP1934252A1, EP1934252A4, US8058391, US20110020871, WO
   2007043059A1)
4. Nitesh Dave, Partha Hazra, Anuj Goel, Nita Roy, Anand Khedkar, Harish Iyer, Gautam Krishnan, H S Manjunath, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Govindasamy Manikam, Goldy Sachdev, Mayank Garg: Process for the preparation of insulin conjugates. Indian Patent No :283452
5. Partha Hazra, HS Manjunath, Anand Khedkar, Harish Iyer, Nitesh Dave, Gautam Krishnan, and Shrikumar Suryanarayan:Preparation of Insulin conjugates Indian Patent No:253674