TEAM
Kamakshi Prudhula is pursuing her PhD in Biotechnology, she works as Research Coordinator at Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Centre- BMMRC. Kamakshi Prudhula has over 9 years of experience in HIV and TB immunology. Areas of her interest are biomarkers for progression to active tuberculosis in HIV infected and household contacts of TB patients. She is currently working on NK cells, Monocytes, T cells and associated cytokines in individuals with latent TB to understand their dynamics during progression to Active tuberculosis. She believes that bio markers to predict activation of TB in high risk population would ensure targeted prophylaxis and decrease in TB burden. She has over 10 peer reviewed manuscripts in international journals and cumulative impactor is 40. She received 50000 USD grant from NIH as a young investigator. She participated and presented on various topics in national and international conferences. She is voted for and currently serving as Co-Chair for RePORT India consortium common protocol.
Prudhula will submit her PhD thesis in Biotechnology this month. She was successful in obtaining an USD 50000 independent grant from CRDF/NIH and also travel fellowship from NIH - NIAID (2016). Actively involved in preparation of the Common protocol, she is also the co-chair of Common protocol. She recently published three first author papers on Immunology of Tuberculosis and co-infection with HIV in peer-reviewed journals such as BioMed Central Infectious Diseases, Cytokine & Tuberculosis. She also has other co-author publications in European Journal of Immunology, Journal of Infectious diseases, PLOS One, PLOS Pathogens etc (cumulative impact factor of 40). She has 9 years of experience in immunology of TB and HIV.
Dr. Venkata Sanjeev Kumar Neela (PhD Biochemistry)
Dr. Sanjeev hold PhD in Biochemistry from Osmania University and currently working as Research Associate and Data Manager. Dr. Sanjeev has been fascinated by structural-functional relationship of biomolecules and their contributions to protection in mycobacterial infections.
Dr. Shilpa Rakh, Lab Coordinator
Dr Shilpa Rakh holds a PhD degree in Genetics from Osmania University, Hyderabad. She specialises in immunology research focused on tuberculosis disease susceptibility. She has over 16 years of experience in research and biopharma industry in India and abroad. She is working at Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Center as a Laboratory Coordinator looking after the various research programs and as a site sub-coordinator for clinical trials.
Dr. Aparna Sykam, Research Associate-I
Dr. Aparna Sykam have a Ph.D in Biotechnology with a demonstrated experience in Immunology and Molecular Biology of infectious diseases like HIV, TB and Leprosy as evidenced by 6 publications. Her current work at Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Centre, Hyderabad, as a Research Associate-I, involves identifying the immunological factors responsible for resistance or susceptibility to TB which would help in understanding the underlying mechanisms and identifying the disease specific markers.
Dr. Aparna, PhD in Biotechnology
She attended the National Operational Research Course-2018, conducted by The Union in collaboration with Central TB Division and National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD) as part of research capacity building of TB program in India and is supported by The Global Fund. She developed a study protocol based on the retrospective data of ongoing projects on socio-demographic and clinical factors and is presently implementing it..