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Research Technician soumyaharapanahlli26@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Soumya Sathish Harapanahalli Research Technician CBM

Project Associate rakesh.mob8@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Rakesh N S Project Associate CBM, A-BIG-NET Rakesh NS is a Psychiatric Social Worker at the Centre for Brain and Mind. He holds an MPhil in Psychiatric Social Work and a Master’s degree in Social Work. Rakesh has experience in community mental health research and stigma reduction outreach programs. His areas of interest include addiction psychiatry and community mental health. He enjoys reading books, traveling, trekking, and watching films, and is passionate about promoting mental health awareness and improving access to care.

Project Scientist (Lab) bhagyams@gmail.com LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team, Lab Team Molecular Genetics Dr Bhagyalakshmi M Shankarappa Project Scientist (Lab) CBM 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. 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

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Project Associate manasadeepika97@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team, Doctoral Candidate Manasadeepika Project Associate CBM I am a project associate at CBM NIMHANS, and am passionate about neuroscience research. I'm currently trying to understand how bionergetics contributes to the machanism of action of lithium in bipolar disorder. Beyond the lab, I find joy in capturing moments through portraits and paintings, letting creativity flow onto canvas. Dancing is my escape, where movement becomes an expression of inner rhythms.

Project Assistant, Doctoral Student pannagaprasadg@gmail.com LinkedIn | Twitter | Instgram ORCID ID: 0009-0009-2075-7979 Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team, Doctoral Candidate Pannaga Prasad G Project Assistant, Doctoral Student CBM, MGL Pannaga Prasad G is a dedicated Project Assistant with a passion for molecular biology and genetic research. Holding an Integrated MSc in Molecular Biology, Pannaga brings expertise in Sanger sequencing, variant effect prediction, electrophoresis, and NGS analysis to his role. Apart from his scientific pursuits, he's an avid chess player and passionate about nature conservation, spending his free time gardening and exploring the outdoors.

Laboratory Technician Instagram Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Deepthi R Laboratory Technician CBM Deepthi R is a Laboratory technician at the Centre for Brain and Mind, holding a Master's degree in Medical Laboratory Technology.With a strong foundation in clinical and research laboratory practices, she supports high-quality diagnostics

Project Associate shahilrahmantk7@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Shahil Rahman T K Project Associate CBM, MQ Shahil Rahman is a Project Associate at the Centre for Brain and Mind. He holds a Master’s degree in Human Genetics from the Central University of Punjab and has research experience in neurobiology and neurodevelopmental disorder-related studies. His interests include neuroscience, developmental biology, and stem cell based research, and he also enjoys running in his free time.

Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health Education latha12k@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Latha K Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health Education

Lab Senior Scientist (Equivalent to Research Associate Professor), Department of Psychiatry reeteka@gmail.com Twitter | LinkedIn ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7866-6983 Resilience and representation in research: In conversation with Reeteka Sud Stress primes brain hub to trigger freezing for unrelated fears Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Stem Cell Research Dr Reeteka Sud Lab Senior Scientist (Equivalent to Research Associate Professor), Department of Psychiatry CBM How can patient-derived stem cells help connect the dots, from genomic risk to clinical diagnosis -- this is the unifying research theme for my various projects. My expertise lies broadly at the intersection of Genetics, Neuroscience and Psychiatry. I head the CBM Biorepository at NIMHANS, where we bank biospecimen from psychiatric patients, including stem cells, DNA, plasma and serum. I am also very passionate about scicomm/public outreach on mental health conditions Select Publications 2026 PrecInNor: An Indo-Norway collaborative programme for precision psychiatry training | Asian J Psychiatry 2025 Defining suicidality phenotypes for genetic studies: perspectives of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Suicide Working Group | Molecular Psychiatry The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: discoveries and directions | Lancet Psychiatry The measurement of agitation in neurocognitive disorders: A systematic review | Alzheimer's & Dementia 2024 Exploring Mental Health Stima in the context of Psychiatric Genetics: Insights from the ISPG Stigma Reduction SIG Survey The STEM Arena in India: A Story of Exclusion in Many Colors Altered neuroepithelial morphogenesis and migration defects in iPSC-derived cerebral organoids and 2D neural stem cells in familial bipolar disorder | Oxford Open Neurosci Projects Deciphering the molecular mechanisms of treatment-resistant schizophrenia and clozapine response: To understand the genomic and cellular predictors of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) and clozapine response using genome-wide association study (GWAS) and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC): Here our aim is to: Identify genomic factors underlying TRS and clozapine response Elucidate cellular mechanisms of TRS and clozapine response in IPSC-derived organoids Evaluate the translational utility of these genetic/cellular markers as predictors of TRS and clozapine response using existing prospective cohorts (Funding from PGRN, BFI Foundation) Subcellular Dynamics in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Our recent work highlights the manifold ways in which sub-cellular organelles may be driving disease pathogenesis. We discovered connections between APOE genotype and ribosome biogenesis, which could be significant for ADRD pathogenesis, and is currently under investigation. We are also using techniques like ExM to study how cytoskeletal structures mediate the workings of antipsychotic drugs, and by extension, be affected in psychotic disorders. (Funding from Ben Barres Award, Axilor Labs) Key Research Outputs (C) Direction of migration. C1-C3 cells migrated in a relatively directional pattern. B1 and B2 cells, however, migrated in a random, non-directed manner. Both BD lines showed back-and-forth movement, and directional and circular patterns of migration. (D) Sample migratory paths of control and patient-derived lines over 15 h. Abnormalities in the migration of neural precursor cells in familial bipolar disorder The trajectories of migrating neural precursors lay the foundations of the developing central nervous system. Here we demonstrate identifiable cellular abnormalities in NPCs derived from BD patients. The BD patients in this study were chosen from a dense family, who had multiple rare damaging variants implicated in cellular migration, and had structural abnormalities noted on brain MRI scans ( Fig. 1 A). Cellular migration analysis showed that although patient-derived NPCs showed a random trajectory, the NPCs from healthy controls migrated towards other cells (directed/ballistic movement) ( Fig. 1 C-D). Integration of deep clinical phenotyping with investigations into cellular mechanisms in patient-derived IPSCs, as reported here, can provide much-needed comprehensive understanding of psychiatric disorders. Cell cycle abnormality is a cellular phenotype in OCD A critical and yet unanswered question in Psychiatry is how might clinical phenotypes manifest in terms of cellular readouts. This study was conducted to determine differences in cell cycle in patient-derived cells vs controls A) Illustrates the placement of Indian samples between European and East Asian clusters, highlighting notable regional variability. Asian PCA with HGDP samples. B) Presents a north-south ancestral gradient, correlated with latitude. SVM predictions. C) Decile-based risk stratification in BD A cross ancestry genetic study of psychiatric disorders from India We estimated the extent of population stratification as well as the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores (PGS) derived from European samples to a data set from India. Our analyses reveal global and continental PCA overlap with other South Asian populations. Admixture analysis revealed a north-south genetic axis within India (FST 1.6%). The Bayesian PGS analyses indicates moderate-to-high predictive power for BD.

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Psychiatric Social Worker (Research) alagarsami.ar23@gmail.com LinkedIn ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8708-7505 Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team, Doctoral Candidate Alagarsami A R Psychiatric Social Worker (Research) CBM Alagarsami A.R is a Psychiatric Social Worker at the Centre for Brain and Mind. With a M.Phil degree in Psychiatric Social Work, Alagarsami have experienced in clinical research and psychotherapy.