First Batch of the
Postgraduate Course in Bioinformatics
February 2002 - July 2003

	Amith Neelkanth Khachane is a medical graduate from M.S Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore. He enjoys software programming and feels that his strong mathematics and bioinformatics skills acquired at IBAB would make him an able researcher at any R&D division of biotech/healthcare companies.
	Animesh K. Agrawal is a post-graduate in agriculture (agronomy) from the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur (MP), where he worked on herbicidal weed control in rice. Thereafter he worked as a research associate in an NATP project sponsored by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), where he was exposed to various computational data processing techniques which are applied to reduce complexity in biological data. His interest in computational biology led him to join IBAB to pursue the postgraduate programme in bioinformatics. His long term career aspirations are to develop tools to visualise, analyse, and manipulate genetic and biochemical data, with a focus on knowledge management.
	Anirban Banerji is a physics honours graduate from the University of Calcutta. He then signed up for the ‘A' level course of DOEACC (Dept. of Electronics Affiliated Computer Course) - equivalent to a master's degree in computer application. Thereafter, he worked as a software developer in two Calcutta-based companies. Banerji has always been fascinated by the complexity prevalent in biological systems and the course at IBAB has opened doors to explore his interests such as algorithm design, biostatistics and computational/theoretical biophysics. After the course, he would like to pursue a doctoral degree in one of these areas.
	Ankit Pal obtained his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the Government College of Pharmacy (Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences), Bangalore. The course at IBAB has developed in him an interest in drug design/modelling and pharmacogenomics. He is also interested in understanding genetic and microbial diseases using microarray technologies, the data of which could give possible clues to treat disease. Outside IBAB, he likes a game of basketball and is an avid reader.
	Ashwini Bhasi is a microbiology graduate from Madras University, followed by a post-graduate diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology from Loyola College, Chennai. She feels that bioinformatics has added a new perspective to her understanding of molecular biology and microbiology, and is particularly interested in functional genomics, microarrays and drug design.
	B. R. Athani is a veterinarian with a post graduate diploma in rural development management from IRMA, Anand. He has 15 years of work experience with the Karnataka Milk Federation. Starting his career as a veterinary surgeon, Athani was later deputy manager involved in the business development strategies in KMF (Bijapur Milk Union), which included managing milk processing and marketing management. Along with the NDDB (National Dairy Development Board), Athani conducted market research which gave an understanding of milk and milk products market in the Bijapur and Bagalkot districts of Karnataka, which gave rise to a successful strategic marketing plan. He joined the first batch of students at IBAB to learn the latest developments in the field of biotechnology, genomics, drug discovery etc.
	Debaprasad Mukherjee is an electrical engineer from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, West Bengal. Despite a research fellowship offer from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore he joined IBAB because of his interest in computation and contemporary biology. After his course he would like to pursue a doctoral degree in theoretical biology.
	Deepa A. is a medical graduate from Mysore Medical College. After working briefly at the Bangalore-based Subbaiah and Mallya hospitals, she used her experience to start a clinic, where she came across ailments and symptoms which medical books could not explain. Joining the first batch of IBAB, has been a stepping stone to achieve her vision of exploring new techniques to understand and treat human diseases. Deepa hopes to do research in 'microarrays' and 'drug-designing'. An avid reader, she likes to read 'anything'.
	Dinesh Jain is a medical graduate from Gwalior Medical College, with post graduate training in general surgery. His aim has been to seek innovative and objective treatment options for better patient care. The training at IBAB has provided him an understanding of basic sciences, research methodologies and information technology. He would like to utilise his knowledge and ideas in drug development, microarray data analysis, software design and analysis for improving medical care. He has a special interest in the application of advances in tissue engineering for reducing the morbidity and mortality among various disease groups.
	G. Yagnasree is an agricultural science graduate from Bapatla Agricultural College, Andhra Pradesh. In addition, she has completed basic e-commerce courses. Subsequently she joined ASML (Advanced Synergic Microsystems Ltd.), Bangalore, where she worked for a year and a half before joining IBAB. In the future, she would like to use her learning at IBAB in the area of medicinal plants research.
	Karthikeyan S holds a master's degree in agricultural entomology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, during which he studied the toxicity of pesticides on earthworms. Thereafter he joined as a marketing officer in SPIC PHI Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Chennai. He has also worked as an enumerator at the Project Directorate of Biological Control, Bangalore. At IBAB, he has familiarised himself with various informatics tools and wet lab skills and would like to use them in his future line of work. Other than research, he enjoys miming and acting in plays.
	Mahantha Swamy holds a master's degree in agricultural entomology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, during which he studied the toxicity of pesticides on earthworms. Thereafter he joined as a marketing officer in SPIC PHI Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Chennai. He has also worked as an enumerator at the Project Directorate of Biological Control, Bangalore. At IBAB, he has familiarised himself with various informatics tools and wet lab skills and would like to use them in his future line of work. Other than research, he enjoys miming and acting in plays.
	Manoj Tyagi is an engineer in computer science from Institute of Technology, Bilaspur. He wants to execute the various skills he has acquired at IBAB to design databases and implement different algorithms that would underlie successful development and application of bioinformatics tools and software.
	Nandini P. S. holds a master's degree in biotechnology from the Bangalore University. Additionally, she has trained in animal cell culture techniques at the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals, Bangalore and in plant tissue culture techniques (GKVK, Bangalore). She has also successfully completed a project titled "Subcloning of ftsZ gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pET-hnef vector and its expression" at the department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. At IBAB, she has learnt to view different facets of biology in conjunction with the use of computers, which would be useful in her future work.
	Nikhil Pratap is an honours graduate in mathematics from D.E.I (Agra). Thereafter, he earned a post-graduate diploma in advanced software technology from NCST (National Centre for Software Technology), Bangalore - an R&D centre under the Ministry of IT, Govt. of India. Here Nikhil got the opportunity to work on several industry standards software development projects, in the areas like operating systems, OOPs, windows programming, database designing, computer networks, and web based technologies. The course at IBAB has added value to his existing skills. He is particularly interested in the mathematical modelling of biochemical networks and its analysis. After his course he would like to work for a corporate house in the areas of algorithm development and database designing for auxillary biological data.
	Om Prakash Pandey has an honours degree in chemistry from Kirori Mal College, Delhi. Along with his course at IBAB, he is also pursuing a master's degree in chemistry from Delhi University. At IBAB he has been exposed to diverse areas such as computational molecular biology, cheminformatics and microarrays. His research interests lie in the area of computer-aided drug design and molecular modelling. In addition, he also enjoys doing scientific computation related to numerical analysis and molecular modelling. Apart from the vast spectrum of subjects, he has been exposed to at IBAB, Om feels he has gained tremendously by interacting with a class with varied educational backgrounds. An out-door person, he enjoys a game of cricket and hockey.
	Pradeep Kumar S. is a graduate in dental surgery from Bangalore University. After a brief period of clinical practice, his interest in IT saw him acquire a PG diploma as well as an MSc in information technology from the MAHE University, Manipal. He has been an OOAD and UML consultant and corporate trainer for companies like IBM, Siemens, HP, Hughes software, Tenet and BPL. He joined the bioinformatics course at IBAB to merge his twin interests of biology and the use of IT in biology. He envisages a future which would see him doing research in the area of bioinformatics either in academia or the corporate world.
	Pradeep Patil is a medical graduate from JJM Medical College, Davangere. The course at IBAB has helped him acquire programming skills and a better insight into molecular biology, cell biology and drug designing. He would like to combine these skills in his future assignments.
	Durairaj is a graduate in pharmacy from Vels College of Pharmacy (Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University) Chennai. Thereafter, he worked at Fulford India Ltd., Chennai as part of a team promoting cardiac drugs. Durairaj has also gained experience in academia as a lecturer in Pharmacology at Sri Balaji Dental College, Chennai. His quest to learn methods of drug discovery led him to take up the course at IBAB and in the future he would like to integrate his knowledge in pharmacy and bioinformatics to pursue his interest.
	Ratnesh Ratna is a zoology honours graduate from Patna University. Thereafter he joined IBAB, where he feels that he has had the opportunity to learn the most recent developments in the field of Bioinformatics along with advanced research techniques of biological wet lab research. As a part of the course he has completed a project in the field of microarray where his topic focussed on data analysis. His area for interest lies in the field of genomics where he wants to work on diseases caused due to mutation of genes.
	Ravi Kiran Reddy K. is a post-graduate in biochemistry from Nagarjuna University, Guntur. During his course, he underwent summer training at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in molecular biology techniques. Subsequently, he worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore. He is interested in protein chemistry, computational biology and molecular biology and wants to combine it with informatics in his future career.
	Sharat J. Vayttaden is a postgraduate in biotechnology from University of Kerala. As part of the course, he worked on the 'Characterisation of an anaerobic rotating biological contactor'-a waste treatment plant designed at IIT-Delhi. He has to his credit a GATE score of 95.78 percentile and is a qualified JRF from the UGC. After his course at IBAB, he wants to use his bioinformatics skills in either academia or industry.
	Suhasa Gowda has a degree in agriculture from the University of Agricultural Sciences, G.K.V.K, Bangalore. His interests are in plant biotechnology, proteomics and allied areas of bioinformatics, which motivated him to join IBAB. Suhasa feels that his experience at IBAB would make him use his theoretical knowledge in agriculture more effectively and a career in plant biology would be his preference. A sports enthusiast, he plays hockey and cricket and has represented Bangalore University.
	Suman Maria Machado is a graduate in life sciences from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She is interested in molecular and cell biology, structural biology and drug designing. But her special interest lies in the study of proteins and she wishes to do research in this exciting field.
	Sushil Kumar Singh is a chemistry graduate from Jaiprakash University, Chapra (Bihar). The course at IBAB has got him interested in the vast field of bioinformatics and specially the area of in-silico drug design. He wants to work further in an organisation working in the field of drug-discovery and microarrays.
	Vaibhav Sinha is a graduate in life sciences and chemistry from Lucknow Christian Degree College. Apart from his interests in molecular structure and chemistry, he also enjoys software programming. Sinha feels that his course at IBAB has honed his mathematical and computational skills. He would like to use his skill-set in the field of pharmaceuticals.
	Venkata Suresh Potluri has a post-graduate degree in marine biotechnology from Andhra University. In addition, he is a level B certified professional in Bioinformatics from Accelrys Inc. USA. Potluri believes that the vast diversity of the marine world is a boon to mankind and research in this area would reveal new chemical compounds, which could be useful to medicine and this is primarily his area of interest. In addition, he wants to study the principles and doctrines of intellectual property rights because of its relevance in today's research. The experience at IBAB has provided Potluri the springboard to pursue his area of interest.
	Vijaya Vani K. is biochemistry postgraduate from the University of Madras. Consequently, she worked briefly as a quality control chemist with Samianka Foods Pvt Ltd (makers of Kwality Walls ice cream) and as development and coordination executive junior for Holista Tranzworld Limited (a group company of VVD). Given her interest in biotechnology, protein chemistry and drug research, she joined IBAB to learn the latest in the field and would like to do research in this area.
	Vikram Alva K. is a computer engineering graduate from Mangalore University. A key project he was involved was in the ‘Network surveillance system using mobile agent technology', which involved remote method invocation (RMI), socket programming and object serialization. At IBAB, he finds that his interests lie in microarrays, gene prediction, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining. He is particularly inclined towards large scale survey and characterisation of genomic sequences and gene expression data. After graduating from IBAB, he hopes to find an R&D position in academia or in a reputed industry. Apart from academics, Alva is interested in ornithology and would like to start a nature conservation group.