Resume
Positions
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Researcher (MSCA-PF), Dipartimento BIGEA, Università di Bologna, Italy
(January 2027 – December 2028)
- Postdoctoral Research fellow, Dipartimento BIGEA, Università di Bologna, Italy
(July 2025 – December 2027)
- Research fellow in Microbiology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Estonia
(Mar 2025 – June 2025)
- Specialist in Microbiology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Estonia
(Sep 2024 – Feb 2025)
Formal education
Ph.D. in Microbiology
2020 – 2024
University of Tartu (UT), Estonia
- CGPA: 4.5/5
M.Sc. in Agricultural Microbiology
2017 – 2019
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), India
- CGPA: 8.9/10
B.Tech. in Biotechnology
2013 – 2017
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), India
- CGPA: 8.3/10
Projects
6Postdoc work - ERC project - EcoMEMO
Ecological memory of extreme drought events in soil microbial communities
(Project PI: Dr. Alberto Canarini, University of Bologna, Italy)
Ph.D. thesis
Microbes and climate change: insights from plant-microbe interactions in rice phyllosphere and soil microbiomes in subarctic grasslands
(Supervisors: Dr. Marika Truu, Prof. Jaak Truu & Prof. Ivika Ostonen, University of Tartu, Estonia)
Masters thesis
Exploring the interaction of phyllosphere bacteria on rice stomatal complex for drought mitigation in rice
(Supervisor: Dr. K.G. Sabarinathan, Dr. M. Gomathy & Dr. D. Balachandar, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India)
Bachelors project — Pollen diversity
Investigating pollen diversity in honey bee hives using DNA barcoding
(Supervisor: Prof. S. Mohan Kumar, Director, CPMB, TNAU, Coimbatore, India)
Bachelors project — Agrobacterium transformation
Agrobacterium-mediated Genetic Co-Transformation in Solanum melongena for the production of marker-free plants against Lepidopteran pest
(Supervisor: Dr. Indrajit Dutta, Bioseeds Research India, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India)
Bachelors project — Transgenic tobacco
Established transgenic tobacco harboring cry2AX1 gene through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation
(Supervisor: Prof. D. Sudhakar, CPMB, TNAU, Coimbatore, India)
Skills
- Field: Experienced in designing and conducting pot-culture experiments, proficient in aseptic sampling and storage for microbiological analysis
- Lab: Skilled in sample processing, culture techniques, DNA/RNA extraction and quantification, qPCR, DNA library preparation, chromatography and mass spectrometry, and microscopy techniques
- Bioinformatics: Proficient in Linux and high-performance computing systems, with extensive expertise in amplicon and metagenomic data analysis, as well as multiple data integration. Skilled in adapting Nextflow pipelines for comprehensive omics data analysis
- Statistics: Proficient in R programming, with foundational knowledge in Python and machine learning algorithms
- Other: Graphic design and website design/management
Grants & Fellowship
- Conference travel grant — Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) | 2022
- Student JRF fellowship – under the scheme project GOI – DBT Foldscope by Department of Biotechnology, India in collaboration with Prakash lab, Stanford university | 2018 – 2019
Awards
- Best poster presentation award — Annual Conference of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and Institute of Genomics, UT (award details) | 2021
- Best poster presentation award — Annual Conference of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and Institute of Genomics, UT | 2020
Teaching Experience
- Graduate teaching assistant for the course Microbiome and Environmental Genomics, UT | 2021 – 2024
References
Jaak Truu
Professor, University of Tartu, Estonia
Contact details: ETIS.
Research profiles: Google Scholar, ResearchGate
Marika Truu
Associate Professor, University of Tartu, Estonia
Contact details: ETIS.
Research profiles: Google Scholar
Sabarinathan KG
Assistant Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Profile: IRINS.
Email: sabarinathan@tnau.ac.in