Avinash S

Clinical microbiologist with expertise in infectious disease control, adept at integrating research with patient care and public health policy. Led outbreak response and patient management initiatives at Apollo Cancer Centre and AIIMS Bibinagar, transforming diagnostics into actionable insights. Skilled in supervising junior residents and coordinating multidisciplinary teams to enhance patient outcomes. Holds advanced training in system design and management from IIM Ahmedabad and National University of Singapore.

• Clinical Microbiology: Proficiency across bacteriology, virology, immunology, and mycology.
• Molecular Diagnostics: RT-PCR, nested PCR, Sanger sequencing, WGS, phylogenetic.
• Advanced Platforms: MALDI-TOF MS, BioFire multiplex PCR, Vitek-2, Microscan, BacT/ALERT, BACTEC.
• Immunology: ANA, ENA, complement assays, autoantibody panels with clinical correlations.
• Mycology: KOH mounts, culture, colony PCR, anti-fungal susceptibility (CLSI).
• Infection Control: Outbreak investigations, surveillance, NABH accreditation processes.
• Teaching & Mentorship: Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, hands-on laboratory training.
• Communication: Fluent in five languages, adept in cross-cultural collaboration.
• Leadership & Policy: Bridging lab evidence with hospital management and national health strategies.

• ACLS & BLS, 02/2022
• Good Clinical Practice & Ethics, 11/2021
• ISO 15189:2022 Laboratory Systems & Internal Audit, NABET-QCI, 03/2025
• NPTEL Basic Biomedical Research, 2021
• RAPTS Postgraduate Teaching Workshop, 2020

• Gold Medal, MD Microbiology, 2023
• Member, American Society for Microbiology
• IIM Ahmedabad MPM-Cx Fellow, 2023
• Healthcare Design Thinking, National University of Singapore, 2023

• Delivered structured teaching sessions for medical undergraduates and postgraduate residents.
• Conducted workshops on infection control practices, antimicrobial stewardship, and diagnostic interpretation.
• Served as mentor for laboratory staff, focusing on quality assurance, safety, and accreditation readiness.
• Experienced in designing training modules that combine theory, simulation, and bedside applicability.

Born to an academically driven family—my mother with a PhD in engineering and my father with an MSc in agriculture—I inherited a disciplined and inquisitive mindset. My MBBS training instilled compassion and patient-centeredness, while my MD allowed me to appreciate the microscopic and molecular dimensions of disease During the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned resilience and adaptability while conducting molecular epidemiology research under operational limitations These experiences taught me to balance scientific rigor with real-world constraints Beyond medicine, I draw balance and perspective from travel, which broadens my worldview, and from music, which grounds me My wife, a pediatrician, continuously reminds me of the human face behind every laboratory result.

• English
• Telugu
• Tamil
• Hindi
• Oriya

My professional vision is to ensure that microbiology does not remain confined to the laboratory, but actively shapes patient care, public health systems, and policy frameworks My career trajectory, spanning clinical microbiology, infectious disease control, molecular epidemiology, and health systems leadership, reflects a consistent drive to connect science with human outcomes From the intense operational pressures of my MD thesis on SARS-CoV-2, through my stewardship and outbreak response work at Apollo Cancer Centre, to my current role as senior resident at AIIMS Bibinagar, I have continually worked to transform diagnostics into actionable knowledge Equally, my training at IIM Ahmedabad and the National University of Singapore has sharpened my ability to think beyond the laboratory, toward system design, management, and innovation. I aim to serve as a bridge between bench science, bedside decisions, and policy impact, bringing technical mastery, ethical clarity, and collaborative leadership to contexts where every diagnostic choice matters

 Several case reports in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases Society, including

• Neck swelling and late cat confession – addressing diagnostic challenges in zoonotic Bartonella henselae infections
• Septic shock due to Listeria monocytogenes in advanced breast cancer – dissecting therapeutic nuances in immunocompromised patients
• Severe pneumococcal pneumonia in CLL – exploring antimicrobial resistance in hematologic malignancies
• Catch Me If You Can: Mycoplasma pneumoniae – outlining a structured framework for diagnosing atypical pneumonias
• Diphtheritic tonsillitis in an immunized adult – providing insights into vaccine breakthrough cases

 National and international platforms

• SARS-CoV-2 host-pathogen interaction – IMMUNOCON 2022, exploring viral molecular epidemiology and phylogenetic trends
• Molecular epidemiology of respiratory viruses – Robert Koch National E-Conference 2021, analyzing genomic patterns and public health impact
• Oral presentation on fungal ball at the Academy of Clinical Microbiologists CME
• Candida haemulonii: An emerging opportunistic pathogen, Madras Medical College Conference