Office Administrator LinkedIn aocbm.nimhans@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Admin Team Mesha P S Office Administrator Mesha is an Office Administrator at the Centre for Brain and Mind with a Bachelor Degree with 2.5 years of experience managing administrative tasks. She is skilled in managing multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring timely completion of tasks and maintaining accurate records.

Professor, Department of Psychiatry LinkedIn | Google Scholar jagatth@yahoo.com , jaga@nimhans.ac.in Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Schizophrenia Dr Jagadisha Thirthalli Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Jagadisha Thirthalli is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS (Faculty since 2002). He has 20 years of research and practical experience in ECT and other brain stimulation techniques. He’s had several awards including Marfatia Award of the Indian Psychiatric Society and CV Raman Award from Government of Karnataka and has publications in Brain Stimulation, Schizophrenia Research, Journal of ECT, Journal of Affective Disorders amongst others.

Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry LinkedIn | Google Scholar vs8sreeraj@yahoo.com , drvs8sreeraj@gmail.com , sre1691@nimhans.ac.in Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Schizophrenia Dr Sreeraj V S Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Sreeraj VS is a psychiatrist and physician-scientist in the Clinical Research Centre for neuromodulation in psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS. He did his Psychiatry Residency training at three of the esteemed psychiatric institutes of India namely, Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi; Institute of Mental Health and Hospital (IMHH), Agra; and NIMHANS, Bangalore including post- doctoral fellowship in clinical neurosciences and therapeutics in schizophrenia. His research interests include neurocognitive and neurobiological markers of psychiatric disorders, translational psychiatry, and brain stimulation.

Director & Senior Professor, Department of Psychiatry ResearchGate Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Pratima Murthy Director & Senior Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Pratima brings about 30 years of extensive experience and exceptional accomplishments in the field of mental health. A well-recognized leader in addiction psychiatry, she has been instrumental in the successful development of state-of-the-art Centre for Addiction Medicine at NIMHANS. She has served as a consultant to prominent international agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). She has also served as a resource person for various flagship training programmes in substance abuse prevention and tobacco cessation in the country, and across the globe. Dr Pratima is also recognised for her contribution in improving care for persons with mental illness through her work with the National Human Rights Commission on quality assurance in mental health care both in institutions and in the community. In recognition of her research and academic excellence, Dr. Pratima has received numerous awards and honours including the prestigious Dr. Raja Ramanna State Award by the Government of Karnataka and Lifetime Achievement Award from Rotary. Recently, she was honoured with the WHO Regional Director’s Special Recognition Award on ‘World No Tobacco Day 2021’ for her remarkable service in tobacco control. A prolific author, she has more than 300 research publications in various international indexed journals and scientific books to her credit. Dr. Pratima received her MBBS degree from Bangalore Medical College in 1985. She obtained DPM and MD (Psychological Medicine) from NIMHANS in 1987 and 1989 respectively. She joined as a faculty at her alma mater in 1993, and has worked in various academic capacities since then. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), Glasgow.

Project Scientist (Lab) LinkedIn k.kathirvel93@gmail.com GitHub: Haplotype-aware-variant-calling-from-long-read-sequence Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Bioinformatics Dr Kathirvel K Project Scientist (Lab) Kathirvel Kandasamy, is a Project Scientist in Neurobiology Research Centre at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. He graduated from Bharathidasan University with Master of Technology in Bioinformatics and then earned his Ph.D. in 2023 from SASTRA University, studying microbial keratitis with advanced NGS techniques. His research interest integrates Neurobiology, Human genetics and Bioinformatics to study Neurodevelopmental disorders.

Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatric Social Work anishvcherian@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Anish V. Cherian Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatric Social Work

Project Associate preethi1682000@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Preethi KP Project Associate Preethi is a Project Associate( Lab) at the Centre for Brain and Mind. With a Master’s degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding and working in Plant- pathogen interactions lab, Preethi has experience in molecular techniques like Cloning, qRT PCR, PAGE, Western blotting etc:- She love to dance, play badminton and enjoys listening to music!

Clinician Scientist (Equivalent to Assistant Professor, Psychiatry) swarnabuddha_nayok@yahoo.co.in Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Dr Swarna Buddha Nayok Clinician Scientist (Equivalent to Assistant Professor, Psychiatry) Swarna Buddha Nayok has completed DPM & MD in Psychiatry, and done Ph.D. in Clinical Neuroscience (submitted). He works at the Centre for Brain and Mind as a Clinician Scientist. His fields of interest are severe mental illness, media & psychiatry

Assistant Professor, DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellow, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar ashithasnm09@gmail.com Agarwal, A., Praveen, A. P., Singhai, K., Ashitha, S. N. M ., Purushottam, M., Jain, S., & Moirangthem, S. (2024). A rare case of Niemann Pick Disease with a novel variant in the NPC2 gene presenting with neuropsychiatric manifestations in middle age. Asian Journal of Psychiatry , 97 , 104089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104089 Durbagula, S., Parambath, S. V., Siddappa Niranjana Murthy, A ., Rameshraju K, M., Ghati Kasturirangan, C., Udupi, G. A., Ramachandra, N. B., Huligerepura Sosalegowda, A., Raman, V., Korlimarla, A., & Gowda, N. K. C. (2024). Genetic insights into male autism spectrum disorder in a small cohort of Indian simplex families: Findings from whole exome sequencing. General Psychiatry , 37 (6), e101606. https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2024-101606 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 Snijesh, V. P., Krishnamurthy, S., Bhardwaj, V., Punya, K. M., Niranjana Murthy, A. S. , Almutadares, M., Habhab, W. T., Nasser, K. K., Banaganapalli, B., Shaik, N. A., & Albaqami, W. F. (2024). SHH Signaling as a Key Player in Endometrial Cancer: Unveiling the Correlation with Good Prognosis, Low Proliferation, and Anti-Tumor Immune Milieu. International Journal of Molecular Sciences , 25 (19), 10443. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms251910443 Srividhya, D., Snijesh, V., Ashitha, S. , Korlimarla, A., & Gowda, N. K. (2024). T53. TEMPORAL DYNAMICS AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF AUTISM RISK GENES IDENTIFIED IN THE INDIAN POPULATION: PRENATAL AND POSTNATAL INSIGHTS. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 87 , 184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.363 Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team, Lab Team Dr Ashitha S N M Assistant Professor, DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellow, Department of Psychiatry Dr Ashita S N M is an assistant professor at the INSPIRE facility at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences at Bangalore, India. Her research focuses on psychiatry genetics, neuroimmunology and neuroimmune dynamics of Autism Spectrum Disorder. She is a recipient of an MQ Fellows Award .

Project Scientist LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar bhagyams@gmail.com Jeevan, Y., Mahadevan, J., Viswanath, B., Jain, S., Ganesh, S., Holla, B., Purushottam, M., & Shankarappa, B. (2024). F35. INVESTIGATING GENETIC RISK FOR PSYCHOSIS IN BIPOLAR DISORDER IN INDIA USING POLYGENIC SCORES. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 87 , 224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.446 Mahadevan, J., Holla, B., Ganesh, S., Shankarappa, B ., Paul, P., Sud, R., Jain, S., Purushottam, M., & Viswanath, B. (2024). W32. A GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDY OF BIPOLAR DISORDER FROM INDIA. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 87 , 118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.241 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 Shankarappa, B. , Ganesh, S., Purushottam, M., & Jain, S. (2024). W94. ALLELE FREQUENCIES AT CRUCIAL LOCI MIGHT UNDERLIE DISPARATE CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL ABUSE ACROSS WORLD POPULATIONS. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 87 , 151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.08.303 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 Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team, Lab Team Molecular Genetics Dr Bhagyalakshmi M S Project Scientist Dr Bhagyalakshmi is a project scientist at Centre for Brain and Mind with PhD in Genetics and Epigenetics of Psychiatric disorders. She is experienced at working with clinical samples, conducting association and candidate gene studies. She has also worked extensively on DNA methylation in psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder, and Alcohol Liver Disease. Currently working on molecular genetics, epigenetics, and epigenomics of various neuropsychiatric disorders to understand the contribution of epigenetic modifications to the disease pathobiology and to explore gene -environment interaction in this aspect.

Research Technician baskaranabirami95@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Abirami Baskaran Research Technician

Professor, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar a.shyamsundar@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Dr Shyam Sundar Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Shyam Sundar A is an Associate Professor in psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. He completed his MBBS from Coimbatore Medical College, Tamil Nadu in 2002 and his postgraduate training in psychiatry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 2006. He worked in AIIMS, New Delhi and Christian Medical College, Vellore before joining NIMHANS as a faculty in the department of psychiatry in 2011. He has been part of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) clinic since then. His areas of interest include obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). He was involved in a research project on the use of rTMS for OCD. He has published in many national and international scientific journals and authored various book chapters on psychiatry. He recently completed a fellowship in bipolar disorders from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.