About Me


Doctor - Physiologist - Neuroscientist - Carnatic vocalist


I am a medical doctor from India. After my training as a doctor (2000 - 2005), I worked in 4 different Medical hospitals (2006 - 2008) - 24 X 7. I then joined MD with Physiology as my Specialization (2006-2010). I later worked as an Assistant Professor (2010-2021) in a Medical College and Teaching Hopsital. Here, I taught Medical Physiology to different medical and paramedical courses.


Simultaneously, I studied Non-pharmacological modes of management of non-communicable diseases. The Indian Council of Medical Research and our University funded my research projects.


I always wanted to be a Neuroscientist. This dream came true over time, and I moved to France to pursue my goals further. I am currently a postdoc in University of Rennes, studying the effect of anthropogenic stimulants, including toxins on neuroplasticity and behavior using zebrafish and mouse models. For this, I use molecular biology approaches.  


I am also a trained Carnatic classical vocalist, teacher of music, and founding trustee of Kalamshu, Bangalore www.kalamshu.org .  


Overall, I am a keen academician interested in disseminating scientific knowledge. My research interest is to design preventive & treatment strategies for neuroendocrine & neurological disorders.  


My dream is to contribute to this world scientifically and train the next-gen. Looking forward to a life full of learning and contributing to Neuroscience!!!

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Education:
MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) 2000 - 2006 - Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, India
Check my Institute's webpage: Dr B R Ambedkar Medical College  


MD (Doctor of Medicine) 2007 - 2010 - Specialized in Physiology - Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, India
Check my Institute's webpage: Ramaiah Medical College  


DNB 2010 - 2011 - Physiology - National Board of Examinations, India
NBE Webpage: NBE  


Ph.D (Doctor of Philosophy) 2019 - 2023 - Neuroscience - Maastricht University, Netherlands
Check my Institute's webpage: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences  


Postdoctoral Fellow 2022 - 2024 - Neuroscience - University of Rennes, France
Check my Institute's webpage: IRSET


Postdoctoral Fellow 2024 to current - Neuroscience - Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Stockholm
Check my Institute's webpage: Karolinska Institute

Research Interests: Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroendocrinology, Autonomic Neuroscience, Stress Physiology, Auditory system, Translational Research

Publications: Google Scholar

Current Research


Postdoctoral Fellow (Mar 2024 to date):
Karolinska Institute - studying neuroendocrine effects of circadian rhythm changes and aggressive behavior Department of Medicine, Karolinska  


Postdoctoral Fellow (June 2021 - Feb 2024):
University of Rennes - funded by Stratégie d’Attractivité Durable RÉgion Bretagne  


Effects of perinatal exposure to neonicotinoid Thiacloprid on the nervous system in zebrafish and mice using the qPCR approach across different brain regions (hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, and hypothalamus).
Effects of exposure to different concentrations of Ethinyl Estradiol (EE2) on markers of neurogenesis, proliferation, neuroendocrine and synaptic markers using the qPCR approach in the transgenic zebrafish model.
Short and long-term effects of Brain AroKO on zebrafish neuroplasticity, funded by ANR (French National Research Agency).  

Poster Presented at FENS 2022, Paris Poster Presented at SBN 2023, Tours, France

Research (2005-2021)


Research (2010-2021): My lab was named the Cognition and Music Perception (CAMP) Lab
Visit CAMP Lab Webpage!
I completed 3 funded projects (as Principal Investigator) - ~65k€
Funded by Indian Council of Medical Research and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.
The research broadly covered preventive strategies for non-communicable disorders.
I studied the effect of lifestyle modification versus added acoustic stimulation using Indian music to reduce hypertension/prehypertension among patients.
Later I studied over 400 healthy individuals for neuro and cardiovascular effects of acoustic stimulation with different melodic scales of music.
For this, I included biomarkers of stress and anxiety scales along with heart rate variability and electroencephalography as parameters.


See one of my Conference Presentations  
MD Thesis (2007-2010):
In my experience of working as a shift worker (2005-2008), the stress involved in hospital settings during the night times was immense.
As a fresh MD student, I conceptualized the idea of probably impaired cardiovascular responses in shift workers and early detection of the same for my MD thesis.
I showed that insomnia for just 1 week in shift workers led to a reduction in heart rate variability (HRV), which is a precursor risk for future heart diseases
For this work, I won the Prof. N. Padmanabhan Memorial Award - best paper by any Postgraduate student in Cardiovascular Physiology – Instituted by Indian association of biomedical sciences (IABMS),India.
Check out the Publication!  
My First Research Experience (2005-2006):
During my bachelor in Medicine, (residency training), I worked on one clinical trial and project studying the effect of meteorological fluctuation on asthma attacks in the emergency room, under the supervision of Dr. B V MuraliMohan (MRCP, UK).
Through data collection and analysis of 13 hospitals across the city, we identified that the average temperature, particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen dioxide play a major role in acute asthma admission, with PM and NO2 having a lag effect for 5 days.
This research was selected for an oral presentation at the National Pulmonologists Conference (NAPCON 2005) and was published later on.
Check out the Publication!  

Publications

For Full Text Click on the Title:
2025 - An integrated approach to understanding the effects of exposome on neuroplasticity.
2025 -Electroencephalographic power spectrum and intersubject correlation on acoustic stimulation with modes of Indian music: A randomized controlled trial.  
2023 - The effect of chronic stress on behaviors, inflammation, and lymphocyte subtypes in male and female rats.  
2023 - Ph.D Thesis: Short-term impact of anthropogenic environment on neuroplasticity – a study among humans and animals.  
2022 - Effect of Indian Music as an Auditory Stimulus on Physiological Measures of Stress, Anxiety, Cardiovascular and Autonomic Responses in Humans—A Randomized Controlled Trial.  
2022 - Temporal changes in electroencephalographic power spectrum on passive listening to three selected melodic scales of Indian music on healthy young individuals-a randomized controlled trial.  
2021 - Short-term effects of passive listening to an Indian musical scale on blood pressure and heart rate variability among healthy individuals–A randomized controlled trial.  
2021 - Effect of specific melodic scales of Indian music in reducing state and trait anxiety: A randomized clinical trial.  
2021 - Normative data and gender differences in heart rate variability in the healthy young individuals aged 18-30 years, a South Indian cross-sectional study.  
2021 - Surgical management of spinal tuberculosis–A retrospective observational study from a Tertiary Care Center in Karnataka.  
2021 - Gender-based comparison of salivary stress marker among healthy individuals after intervention with three melodic scales of Indian music – Exploration with a pretest-posttest design.  
2021 - An Overview of the Indian System of Raagas and their Positive Effects on Health.  
2020 - Contributed to the Book - Competency-Based Questions and Answers in Physiology (Amazon).  
2019 - Chapter in a Book - Indian music intervention as a tool in medicine.  
2017 - Meteorological parameters and pollutants on asthma exacerbation in Bangalore, India - an ecological retrospective time-series study.  
2017 - Stress as a Cause of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis and Its Correlation with Salivary Stress Markers.  
2016 - Combination of music with lifestyle modification versus lifestyle modification alone on blood pressure reduction - A randomized controlled trial.  
2016 - Prolonged health benefits by alteration in plasma Interleukin-6 and fasting blood sugar with graded exercise in individuals with varied BMI.  
2016 - Prevalence of Microalbuminuria - An Early Detector of Diabetic Nephropathy.  
2015 - Music versus lifestyle on the autonomic nervous system of prehypertensives and hypertensives--a randomized control trial.  
2015 - Correlation of serum uric acid with heart rate variability in hypertension.  
2014 - The Effect of Gender on Heart Rate Variability and Uric Acid Levels among Subjects with Different Blood Pressure Profiles.  
2014 - Glycosylated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) - A Marker of Circulating Lipids in Type 2 Diabetic Patients.  
2013 - ICMR Funded Research Report - Role of music in non-pharmacological management of hypertension.  
2012 - Robert Tigerstedt and the discovery of renin - a revisit.  
2011 - Letter to the editor: Insight into the relation between autonomic function and hypertension.  
2010 - Heart rate variability changes in business process outsourcing employees working in shifts.  

Google Scholar!

Awards

Siri Research Award for Best Paper in the category of Stress, instituted by IABMS, India.  

Outreach, Mentorship

Teaching:
I was an Assistant Professor in a medical school that involved higher teaching responsibilities, from 2010 to 2021.
I was in the department of Medical Physiology, teaching Theory and Practical Human Physiology.
I taught and prepared course materials for over 13 streams of undergraduate studies which included Medical, Dental, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Engineering, and more.
Course Abbr.: MBBS, MD, BDS, MDS, BPT, B.E Medical Electronics, B.Sc Nursing, overall >400 students/year
We had an annual feedback system from students and faculty (peers).
In this, I was always rated high (>4.5/5) by students and in peer reviews of my teaching and teaching techniques.
I was the teacher in charge of the Nursing course, which handled over 60 hours of theory and over 100 students each year.
I was also a Departmental Library in charge where we had over 400 books, purchased and donated by senior Professors in Physiology.
I was also an active cultural committee member for my tenure as an Assistant Professor.
I led the effort to obtain a certificate from the Department of Science and Industry (DSIR), Government of India which helped in recognizing the institute's work Nationally.
See one of the Staff Fashion shows I organized and participated in

Organizer:
I organized a two-day workshop - ‘Neuroscience 2017’ - Science academies lecture workshop on ‘Recent advances in brain health & diseases’
For this I collaborated with Dr Ambarish Vijayaraghava, MD, Ph.D, Physiology.
This was a one-of-a-kind symposium that involved 13 neuroscientists of international repute and over 170 attendees.
For this, I secured a grant of 1.10 Lakhs INR from the Indian Academy of Sciences, Govt of India.
I received an Appreciation letter, for meticulous organization, from Prof L S Shashidhara, EMBO Associate Member and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biology, Ashoka University, and Professor and Chair of Biology, IISER Pune, India.
Organized Guest lecture by Grammy Awardee Mr. Ricky Kej
World Earth Day 07 June 2018 - theme “Beat Plastic Pollution” - more than 500 attendees


Outreach:
As a Speaker (Click to know more):
ESCOM-ICMPC 2021
APPICON 2017, JIPMER, Pondicherry
Conference on Culture, Design, and Cognition, organized by IGNCA and National Institute of Design
South Asian Regional Conference of International Society for Music Education (ISME) at NIAS, Bengaluru


Scientific Committee Member:
I am a Scientific committee member of Project Encephalon - a student-run, international not-for-profit organization - Project Encephalon
Member:
Societes des Neurosciences,
European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS),
Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India (APPI),
Physiological Society of India,
Indian Academy of BioMedical Sciences,
Society of Music Perception and cognition(SMPC),
I was an associate member of The Physiological Society UK.  


As a Mentor:
I have also signed the #Mentor First Pledge You can take this pledge too
Recently mentored students during Project Encephalon Brain Awareness Week (PEBAW) sponsored by IBRO for those who are passionate to know the neurobiology of everyday life.


I voluntarily mentor people who reach out to me for research, science, neuroscience or any other relevant topics.
The professionals I have mentored:
Dr Harshal Ranglani
Dr Eilene Basu
Dr Sameep Shetty
Dr Keerthi Kalaiah
Dr Shaiva Murthy
Dr Mahathi Avadhanam
Dr Iniya Ezhilarasan
Dr Preethi Jagannath
Dr Asish B George
I consulted as a specialist in music research for a proposed project by Dr Jayasree Sampath
I volunteered for the recent Dutch Brain Olympiad 2023 as part of the Academic and Communication Team Dutch Brain Olympiad
I was a senior trainer (2003 - 2009) training common people in basic and advanced life support skills with the Nightingales' Life Saving Trust, Bengaluru, India

My Mentors:

Reviewer of Scientific Journals:
Neuroscience-and-biobehavioral-reviews, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Music and Medicine (Sage publishers), Frontiers for Young Minds, Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, International Journal of Preventive Medicine, Psychology of Music, Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology; International journal of cardiology; Journal of family practice; Heart Asia; International Journal of diabetes in developing countries; European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy; Complementary Therapies in Medicine; Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Explore The Journal of Science and Healing.


Awards: For best oral/poster/paper
* Prof R C Shukla Oration Award 2021 - instituted by the Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India (APPI).
* Siri Research Award 2019 - instituted by the Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists (IABMS).
* Prof N Padmanabhan Memorial Award 2009 - best paper by a Postgraduate Student instituted by the Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists (IABMS).  

Equity & Inclusion:
I am an active member of the World Women in Neuroscience (WWN) and ALBA Network whose mission is to reduce bias and promote inclusion parallelling the DEI objectives of my life.
I am deeply committed to supporting and promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
As a faculty, it will be my top priority to foster, train, recruit, and retain creative scientists, especially women and underrepresented groups in STEM at the graduate, postgraduate and faculty levels.
I will ensure my team will respect diverse, multicultural individuals, and their viewpoints and values.
I aspire to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and nurturing space for all of my trainees, faculty, and staff.

Artist

My Music Education:
Junior in Carnatic Music – Under the tutelage of Guru Vid. Usha, Daughter of Kurudi Venkannachar, Carnatic Vocalist & composer
Senior in Carnatic Music - Under the tutelage of Guru Vid. Deepa Nataraj, Disciple of Vid. B V Laxman, a well known Carnatic Vocalist
Vidhwath (Poorva) in Carnatic Music – 1st Rank The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB), Karnataka, India - Under the tutelage of Guru Vid. Srinath Chakravarthy, Disciple of Vid. M L Vasanthakumari & Guru Prof. Nagamani Srinath, Disciple of Ramnad Krishnan & Vid. Nagaveni Ramesh, disciple of Sukanya Prabhakar, Mysore.
Bhaavageethe (Light Vocal) – Vid. Deepa Nataraj & Raju Ananthaswamy
Devaranaama – Vid. Deepa Nataraj
Attended workshops conducted by – Vid. R K Srikantan, Vid. Nagamani Srinath & Raju Ananthaswamy

As a Performing Vocalist:
I performed several solo concerts since I was a child.
I regularly performed with Vid Deepa Nataraj and team at different venues.
I performed at several venues as part of Sunaada Cultural Center, Prof Nagamani Srinath Madam's Productions
I am the official vocalist for Kalamshu Dance Drama Productions.

As a Music Teacher and Assistant Director of Kalamshu:
Read details on www.kalamshu.org
My Productions:
South Indian Carnatic Medley – A unique theme-based medley of about 20 Carnatic composers of South India
Composed Tana Varnas – in different ragas
All Basic Carnatic (South Indian) Music lessons recorded by me are freely available on my YouTube Channel.
My YouTube Channel

Passion for Other Art Forms:
Photography: My passion for photography increased from 2008 onwards.
My photos have been featured in Newspapers.
This is Photography done voluntarily for the SPICMACAY International School Convention held at DPS North, Bangalore – 25 – 31 Dec 2017
Published in various newspapers – Including The Hindu.
Won second place in CIREFE organized Photography Contest - Theme - "Cultures du monde" (Cultures of the World) in 2021.
I submitted a photograph clicked during the Kudiyattam performance by Kapila Venu, Kerala, South India.
Rangoli making (A traditional art form of South India)
Graphic Designing
Designed the unique India Culture map – “Treasures of India” – A map covering the vast dance and music culture of India