Muthumeenakshi Bhaskaran

Ph.D. With specialization in Immunogenetics and Infectious Diseases, complemented by hands-on experience as a Clinical Research Scientist. Focused on driving excellence in clinical trial operations, analytical monitoring, and project management across oncology, idiopathic infertility, hepatic, and renal disorders. Skilled in scientific review, operational oversight, and risk‑based quality management, ensuring study quality, participant safety, and regulatory compliance. Experienced in collaborating with healthcare professionals and cross‑functional teams to maintain GCP standards. Proficient in molecular biology, genetics, NGS, and data analysis, and working with complex data structures and external datasets. Proven record of leadership, mentoring, and communication, demonstrated through training initiatives, stakeholder engagement, and presentations at scientific conferences.

• Completed a three-year consecutive summer internship (May 2010 – July 2012) under the Project Oriented Biological Education (POBE) program at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, India.
• Explored diverse scientific laboratories within the institution, completing foundational coursework in the first year.
• Initiated scientific research in the HIV-AIDS Laboratory during the second and third years, contributing to the project "Site-Directed Mutagenesis & Cloning of HIV-1 Subtype C Tat Variants into a Bacterial Expression Vector."
• Gained hands-on experience in molecular biology and microbiology techniques, including animal model handling as part of the research curriculum.
• Developed a strong interest in experimental design, meticulously maintained lab records, and engaged in collaborative discussions with the research team.
• Translated research findings into scientific writing, conducted data analysis, and projected key experimental outcomes.
• Assisted senior scholars in vendor selection for indent placements, ensuring effective budget management throughout the project.

• Extensive experience in end-to-end clinical trial management, ensuring GCP compliance, data integrity, and operational excellence. Oversaw all trial phases—from site selection and initiation through monitoring and reporting—while collaborating with subject matter experts to resolve operational challenges, maintain eTMF inspection readiness, and drive smooth study progression
• Molecular Assays – Genomic DNA extraction, PCR, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), Agarose Gel Electrophoresis, Agilent Tape Station. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) Genotyping. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) – Whole Genome and Targeted Amplicon in Illumina MiSeq and Oxford Nanopore platforms
• Bioinformatics Analysis for NGS, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), SNP detection, and Phylogenetic tree construction
• Electronic Data Capture, OpenClinica, Statistical Data Analysis for Genome-Wide Associated Studies (GWAS), and Clinical Invoicing in MS Excel and R programming
• Microbiology basic techniques, and Scientific Communications

• A trainer for the Advanced Bioinformatics Workshop developed for the GPS and JUNO projects held at the Central Research Laboratory (CRL), KIMS, Bengaluru in February 2023.
• Staff Member on SARS -CoV-2 Bioinformatics for Beginners Course organized by COVID-19 GENOMICS GLOBAL Training, UK & Wellcome Connecting Science from November - December 2022.
• Recipient of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Professional Development Award for Oral presentation organized by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November 2022.
• Course Instructor for “Training on Next Generation Sequencing for Clinicians”, organized by CRL, KIMS, Bengaluru in September 2022.
• Global Educator for COG-UK course on "Making sense of genomic data: COVID-19 web-based bioinformatics", and "A Practical Guide for SARS CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing" at the Future Learn platform during July & September 2022.
• Council of Scientific & Industrial Research– Senior Research Fellowship, New Delhi, July 2016 to August 2021.

• Good Clinical Practice (GCP) - NIDA Clinical Trials Network issued February 2024.
• Global Training Course on "Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacterial Pathogens (Asia)", organized by the Wellcome Connecting Science at the Mahidol University, Thailand in February 2023.
• “Contemporary topics and techniques in Computational Drug Discovery & Design”, a Cloud-Based Hands-On workshop organized by SASTRA University and Schrödinger in September 2021.
• E-poster presentation: “Identification of HLA class I (A and B) and class II (DRB and DRB) allelic polymorphism in South Indian (Tamil Nadu) women and their association with persistent HPV-16 infection”, in the 1st Cancer Conference on Real World Evidence, Chennai in August 2019.
• “STATS DECODED” Workshop organized by the Oncoclub and Fenivi Research Solutions Pvt. Ltd., at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai in February 2019.
• Certificate Course on “Next Generation Sequencing Analysis” conducted by SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur from January to April 2019.
• "Karyotyping and FISH Techniques" Workshop organized by TriGen Molecular and Genetic Labs, Tiruchirapalli in June 2018.
• International Conference on “Genome Biology and Informatics in Health Sciences”, organized by the Department of Bioinformatics, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur in April 2018.

• Bhaskaran M and ArunKumar G. A meta-analysis of association of Human Leukocyte Antigens A, B, C, DR and DQ with Human Papillomavirus 16 infection. Infect Genet Evol 2019; 68:194–202.
• Bhaskaran M, Murali SV, Rajaraman B, Krishnasamy S, Devasena CS, Pathak A, Ravi V, Swaminathan K, Kuppuswamy AA, Vedantham S, Seshachalam A and ArunKumar G. Association of HLA-A, B, DRB and DQB alleles with persistent HPV-16 infection in women from Tamil Nadu, India. Viral Immunol 2019; 32: 430-441.
• Sundaramoorthy NS, Thothathri S Bhaskaran M, ArunKumar G and Saisubramanian N. Phages from Ganges River curtail in vitro biofilms and planktonic growth of drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in a Zebrafish infection model. AMB Expr 2021; 11: 1-11.
• Marathe SD, Shamanna V, Nagaraj G, Nischita S, Bhaskaran M, and Ravikumar KL. Whole-Genome Sequencing of omicron identified multiple outbreaks and introduction events in India during November 2021 and January 2022. J Clin Mol Med 2023; 6: 1-5.