Project Scientist (Lab) LinkedIn k.kathirvel93@gmail.com 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. GitHub: Haplotype-aware-variant-calling-from-long-read-sequence

Project Scientist (Medical) drfarooqdcms@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Dr Farooq Ali Syed Project Scientist (Medical)

Clinical Post Doctoral Fellow (Equivalent to Senior Resident, Psychiatry) chidatma.a@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Dr Chidatma A Clinical Post Doctoral Fellow (Equivalent to Senior Resident, Psychiatry) Dr. Chidatma A is a Clinical Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Brain and Mind with an MD from Karnataka Medical College and Research Institute, ranked 4th at RGUHS. He has a strong background in community mental health, psychiatric training, and research. His work includes international presentations and published research, with a focus on neurobiology, schizophrenia, and psychopathology. Dr. Chidatma is passionate about advancing mental health care through clinical expertise and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Lab Technician vaishnavi.ravi19@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Niveditha R Lab Technician Niveditha is a lab technician at the Centre for Brain and Mind. With a Degree in Medical laboratory technology. Niveditha has experience working in Microbiology especially in Virology with hands on experience in ELISA, PCR. She enjoys photography, trekking, exploring new places, food and dance.

Senior Professor & Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Prabha S Chandra Senior Professor & Department of Psychiatry Dr. Prabha S. Chandra, is a Professor and Head of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, Bangalore, India. She studied at the Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi and NIMHANS. She has served as a Temporary Advisor to the WHO and UNAIDS and is the Secretary of the International Association of Women’s Mental Health, a nominated member of the World Psychiatric Association and an executive member of the Marce International society. She has been an NHS International Fellow and Consultant in Manchester, UK and a visiting professor at the University of Liverpool. Her main areas of interest are Women's Mental Health, Perinatal Psychiatry, teaching methods, ethics and palliative care. She has nearly 180 publications and has edited several books. She has three active research grants and has won several recognitions and awards. She has started the first dedicated psychiatry service including a Mother Baby unit in South Asia for mothers with severe mental illness.

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.

Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar | Twitter bijuv1@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Investigator Team Bipolar Disorder, Molecular Genetics, Stem Cell Research Dr Biju Viswanath Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr Biju Viswanath is a clinician-researcher and Additional Professor at the Centre for Brain and Mind and the Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS. His interest lies in developing cellular models for psychiatric disorders. He trained as a psychiatrist and also received his Ph.D. from NIMHANS. Publications 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 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 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 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 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

MRI Technician uslaxmishree@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back MRI/EEG Team Lakshmi R S MRI Technician Lakshmi R S is an MRI technician at the Centre for Brain and Mind. With a Bachelors degree in Medical Imaging Technology, she has experience working in proficient patient assessment and safety, ensuring optimal imaging quality and patient comfort.

Professor and Head, Department of Mental Health Education meenaksiyer@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr K S Meena Professor and Head, Department of Mental Health Education

Clinician Scientist (Equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Psychiatry mayurvanish@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Bipolar Disorder Dr Pavithra Jayasankar Clinician Scientist (Equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Psychiatry

Associate Professor, Department of Biophysics LinkedIn | Google Scholar bhupeshmehta@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Bhupesh Mehta Associate Professor, Department of Biophysics

Project Scientist LinkedIn | Twitter | Google Scholar bhagyams@gmail.com 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. 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