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Investigator Team

Bipolar Disorder, Molecular Genetics, Stem Cell Research

Dr Biju Viswanath

Professor, Department of Psychiatry

I am a professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru (NIMHANS), where my primary area of research includes understanding the molecular basis of etiology and treatment response in neuropsychiatric disorders. My training as a physician specialising in psychiatry and as a basic researcher in human stem cells enables me with a unique skill set to develop and execute translational psychiatry research.


I am currently funded to examine genetic and cellular correlates of lithium response in bipolar disorder. I am also a key investigator at the Rohini Nilekani Centre for Brain and Mind at NIMHANS (previously the Accelerator program for Discovery in Brain disorders using Stem cells (ADBS) program funded by the Department of Biotechnology), which aims to build a biorepository of human induced pluripotent stem cells for serious mental illnesses in India. The proposed study is in line with my interests in the genetic basis of bipolar disorder. I have established a network of investigators in India that has the capability to become an important contributor in the field of psychiatric genetics.


I am also a DBT/WT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow in the Clinical and Public Health programme 

Publications

  1. Agrawal, A., Bulik, C. M., Abebe, D. S., Andreassen, O. A., Atkinson, E. G., Choi, K., Corvin, A., Davies, H. L., Davis, L., Docherty, A., Edenberg, H. J., Franke, B., Gelernter, J., Giusti-Rodriguez, P., Hettema, J. M., Hjerling-Leffler, J., Huang, H., Johnson, E. C., Lewis, C., … Sullivan, P. (2025). The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Discoveries and Directions. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xykj2_v2

  2. Parthaje, S., Janardhanan, M., Paul, P., Karunakaran, K. B., Deb, A. P., Shankarappa, B., Pal, P. K., Mahadevan, A., Jain, S., Viswanath, B., & Purushottam, M. (2025). CAG Repeat Instability and Region-Specific Gene Expression Changes in the SCA12 Brain. The Cerebellum, 24(3), 60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-025-01808-z

  3. Ratna, N., Venkatesh, S. D., Pasupulati, S., Murari, G., Kamble, N., Viswanath, B., Yadav, R., Varghese, M., Pal, P. K., Jain, S., & Purushottam, M. (2025). Allelic Diversity, de novo CAG Expansions, and Intergenerational Instability at the HTT Locus in a clinical sample of Huntington’s Disease from India. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.03.21260193

  4. Ritter, P., Glenn, T., Achtyes, E. D., Alda, M., Agaoglu, E., Altınbaş, K., Andreassen, O. A., Angelopoulos, E., Ardau, R., Aydin, M., Ayhan, Y., Baethge, C., Bauer, R., Baune, B. T., Balaban, C., Becerra-Palars, C., Behere, A. P., Behere, P. B., Belete, H., … Bauer, M. (2024). Association between a large change between the minimum and maximum monthly values of solar insolation and a history of suicide attempts in bipolar I disorder. International Journal of Bipolar Disorders, 12(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40345-024-00364-5

  5. Shankarappa, B., Prasad, V. P., Kumar, S., Rao, R. S., Royal, A. B., Swamy, M., Prasad, P., Niranjana Murthy, A. S., Ganesh, S., Viswanath, B., Jain, S., Purushottam, M., & Thyloth, M. (2024). A Novel Homozygous Variant in CPLANE1 Gene in a Patient with Developmental Deficits. Molecular Syndromology, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1159/000541167

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