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Senior Scientific Officer, Department of Psychiatry meera.purushottam@gmail.com ResearchGate | Back Back to People Page Back Investigator Team Molecular Genetics Dr Meera Purushottam Senior Scientific Officer, Department of Psychiatry CBM, MGL Dr Meera Purushottam is senior geneticist at the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at NIMHANS where the focus has been the genetic basis and correlates of psychiatric and neurological diseases. The laboratory is the testing ground for many clinicians who base their post graduate and doctoral thesis dissertations on wet lab experiments carried out under her supervision. Her work has focused on trying to understand the influence of gene variants on disease presentation and response to drugs. Cells derived from patients have been used to unravel disease mechanisms better, while whole exome studies have helped to identify rare risk variants in severe mental illness in patients. She is in charge of genetic testing for early onset neuromuscular and late onset movement disorders. She is interested in understanding the biological implications of genetic variants at the level of the patient, the tissue and the cell. The effect of the environment on the DNA methylome is an area of specific interest. 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 Patra, C., Ganesh, S., Mahadevan, J., Gujarati, K., Awasthy, D., George, S., Ganapathy, A., Phalke, S., Bettadapura, R., Viswanath, B., Varghese, M., Jain, S., Prasad, P., & Purushottam, M. (2024). W48. PROFILING THE RARE VARIANT GENETIC RISK FOR DEMENTIA WITH WHOLE EXOME SEQUENCING: A STUDY FROM INDIA. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 87 , 126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.257 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 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 Vinod, P., Sen, S., Jayasankar, P., Janardhanan, M., Paul, P., Viswanath, B., Jain, S., Harbishettar, V., Sivakumar, P. T., & Purushottam, M. (2024). Does Apolipoprotein E polymorphism play a role in familial Alzheimer’s Dementia. Alzheimer’s & Dementia , 20 (S1), e087257. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.087257

Research Nurse/Technical Research Assistant dkakash167@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Akash D K Research Nurse/Technical Research Assistant CBM, GENMETSZ

Clinical Project Associate amrutha.001634@nimhans.net LinkedIn Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Amrutha Gunda Clinical Project Associate CBM, A-BIG-NET Amrutha is a Clinical Project Associate at the ABIGNET project with a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. She has worked with addiction populations, children with developmental challenges, and older adults. Her interests lie in understanding diverse mental health needs and providing empathetic, evidence-based support. She is committed to continuous learning and meaningful contributions in the field of mental health.

Senior Technical Officer - A (Hardware and Data Management) kshankarachary@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back MRI/EEG Team K Shankarachary Senior Technical Officer - A (Hardware and Data Management) CBM

Additional Professor of Clinical Psychology dr.himanikashyap@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Himani Kashyap Additional Professor of Clinical Psychology

Senior Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Investigator Team Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Dr YC Janardhan Reddy Senior Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry CBM Dr Reddy is a Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. He completed his MBBS from the Government Medical College, Bellary in 1986 and obtained his MD degree in psychiatry from the NIMHANS in 1991. He is on the faculty of the department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS since 1995. The obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) clinic at the institute is headed by him. The OCD clinic is involved in clinical services, post-graduate training and research. His areas of specialization include obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, bipolar disorders and clinical psychopharmacology. Dr Reddy has special interest in studying the long-term course and outcome of OCD and bipolar disorders and in the management of treatment resistant OCD patients. Recently, the OCD Clinic has initiated neurosurgery program for treatment refractory OCD patients. Dr Reddy is involved in studies of phenomenology, comorbidty, family-genetics, treatment resistance, neuropsychology and neuroimaging in OCD. His current area of study involves studying neuropsychological and neuroimaging endophenotypes in OCD. He has published extensively in international and national peer reviewed journals on OCD and bipolar disorders. He is also the reviewer for many national and international journals in psychiatry. In view of his interest in clinical psychopharmacology, Dr Reddy has participated in international clinical drug trials of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and OCD. He mentors post-graduate and doctoral students in their research work and is a mentor of the Fogarty Indo-US Training Program. He was awarded the Visiting commonwealth research fellow at the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK in the years 1999 and 2000. He has also been awarded the prestigious Sir C.V. Raman State Award for the Young Scientists for the year 2011 by the Government of Karnataka. Dr. Reddy has funded projects on OCD from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) of the Government of India. He is a member of the WHO Working Group on Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders for revision of ICD-10. Publications Bhattacharya, M., Kashyap, H., Balachander, S., & Reddy, Y. C. J. (2024). Validation of the Cognitive Assessment Instrument for Obsessions and Compulsions (CAIOC-13) in an Indian Sample. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine , 02537176241245330. https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176241245330 Bhattacharya, M., Kashyap, H., & Reddy, Y. C. J. (2024). Cognitive Training in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Systematic Review. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine , 46 (2), 110–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176231207781 Kurth, F., Schijven, D., Van Den Heuvel, O. A., Hoogman, M., Van Rooij, D., Stein, D. J., Buitelaar, J. K., Bölte, S., Auzias, G., Kushki, A., Venkatasubramanian, G., Rubia, K., Bollmann, S., Isaksson, J., Jaspers‐Fayer, F., Marsh, R., Batistuzzo, M. C., Arnold, P. D., Bressan, R. A., … Luders, E. (2024). Large‐scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries during neurodevelopment: Associations with age and sex in 4265 children and adolescents. Human Brain Mapping , 45 (11), e26754. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26754 Sharma, L. P., Ganesh, U. M., Arumugham, S. S., Srinivas, D., Venkatasubramanian, G., & Reddy, Y. J. (2025). Deep brain stimulation–A primer for psychiatrists. Asian Journal of Psychiatry , 104 , 104354. Thatikonda, N. S., Narayanaswamy, J. C., Venkatasubramanian, G., Reddy, Y. J. , & Arumugham, S. S. (2025). Differential Functional Connectivity of Frontolimbic Circuit During Symptom Provocation in Distinct Symptom Profiles of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Connectivité fonctionnelle différentielle du circuit frontolimbique durant la provocation de symptômes dans des profils symptomatiques distincts du trouble obsessionnel-compulsif. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie , 07067437251328368.

Professor, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Investigator Team Dementia, Schizophrenia Dr John P John Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. John P. John is a Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. He underwent post-graduate training in Psychiatry at NIMHANS and post-doctoral training in MRI analyses at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA. He has been a faculty at NIMHANS since 2002. His area of clinical specialization is General Adult Psychiatry. His research interest is in linking multi-modal brain imaging techniques (sMRI, fMRI, MRS, DTI, EEG, ERP, PSG) and genomics in understanding the neurobiology of schizophrenia, dementia as well as of different cognitive states. He is the Faculty-in-Charge of the Multimodal Brain Image Analysis Laboratory (MBIAL) at the Neurobiology Research Center at NIMHANS. He is also the faculty-in-charge of the ADBS Neuroimaging Centre (ANC) and the Centre for Brain Mapping (CBM) of the Department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS. Arora, S., Praveen, A. P., Subu, O., Suhas, S., Gowda, G. S., Reddi, V. S. K., & John, J. P. (2025). Sequential ketamine infusion and electroconvulsive therapy in severe depression with psychotic symptoms and pseudo-dementia – A case report. Asian Journal of Psychiatry , 104 , 104383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2025.104383 Arora, S., Suhas, S., Gowda, G. S., Reddi, V. S. K., & John, J. P. (2025). Avertible filicide: A call to action for early intervention and mental health support in India. Archives of Women’s Mental Health . https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-025-01559-0 Feng, Y., Chandio, B. Q., Villalon‐Reina, J. E., Thomopoulos, S. I., Nir, T. M., Benavidez, S., Laltoo, E., Chattopadhyay, T., Joshi, H., Venkatasubramanian, G., John, J. P ., Jahanshad, N., Reid, R. I., Jack, C. R., Weiner, M. W., Thompson, P. M., & for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. (2025). Microstructural mapping of neural pathways in Alzheimer’s disease using macrostructure‐informed normative tractometry. Alzheimer’s & Dementia , 21 (1), e14371. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.14371 Malipeddi, S., Mehrotra, S., John, J. P. , & Kutty, B. M. (2024). Practice and proficiency of Isha Yoga for better mental health outcomes: Insights from a COVID-19 survey. Frontiers in Public Health , 12 , 1280859. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1280859 Villalón-Reina, J. E., Zhu, A. H., Benavidez, S., Moreau, C. A., Feng, Y., Chattopadhyay, T., Nabulsi, L., Kushan, L., John, J. P. , Joshi, H., Thomopoulos, S. I., Lawrence, K. E., Nir, T. M., Jahanshad, N., Bearden, C. E., Kia, S. M., Marquand, A. F., Thompson, P. M., & the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. (2024). Lifespan Normative Modeling of Brain Microstructure . https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.15.628527

Technician (EEG, Psychophysics) anukrishnan.gd@gmail.com LinkedIn Back Back to People Page Back MRI/EEG Team Anukrishnan G D Technician (EEG, Psychophysics) CBM

Laboratory Manager vignesh.cbm26@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Vignesh P Laboratory Manager CBM Vignesh is a Laboratory Manager at the Centre for Brain and Mind, NIMHANS. With a masters degree in Medical Biochemistry and over five years of experience in healthcare operations and laboratory management, Vignesh has worked extensively in coordinating clinical and research laboratory services. His interests lie in strengthening quality systems and supporting interdisciplinary research. Outside of work, Vignesh enjoys reading fiction, playing football, poetry and sketching

Project Associate, Doctoral Student lakshanadp1998@gmail.com Google Scholar | LinkedIn Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team, Doctoral Candidate Lakshana DP Project Associate, Doctoral Student CBM Lakshana is a Ph.D candidate working on understanding the mechanisms of lithium in bipolar disorder. Lakshana's personality can be summed up in a few words; hungry, sleepy & bad at math (until she has to run stats for her experiments).

Participate in Our Research Be a part of our groundbreaking research initiatives by volunteering! You can explore the dedicated pages for each research group to learn more about the innovative studies our scientists are conducting. Our research delves into understanding the complexities behind severe psychiatric illnesses. Our studies may involve - non-invasive methods like EEG recordings, where sensors are placed on the scalp to capture brainwave activity MRI brain scans simple measurements of button-press responses or eye movements blood sample which will be used for genetic and stem cell studies For more information, please read the “Information & Consent Forms” (links to the PDF documents in various languages are given below) If you are eager to participate as a research volunteer, you can register by filling out the form below . Once registered, we will reach out to you when a suitable study becomes available. Your involvement plays a crucial role in advancing our understanding of the human brain, and we welcome you to be a part of our exciting journey in pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration. Information and Consent Forms (PDF) Control (Unaffected Persons) Patient Relatives English Kannada Hindi Tamil Telugu Malayalam English Kannada Hindi Tamil Telugu Malayalam English Kannada Hindi Tamil Telugu Malayalam