Area of Research: For the past one decade our group has been studying the bacterial diversity of different ecological niches of India and described several novel bacterial taxa. Currently our group is working on culture collection related activities and exploration and exploitation of unseen prokaryotic diversity using polyphasic approach. Recently we have extended it to next generation sequencing and comparative genomics. Our group has also initiated work on development of bioremediation technology for explosives, focusing on NRPS and PKS through culturable and metagenomic approach; understanding the Human Microbiome. Current Projects: Culture collection related activities, research on microbial taxonomy- MTCC (CSIR-DBT); Development of bioremediation technology for Explosive compounds (DRDO); Man as a Super organism: Understanding the Human Microbiome (CSIR); Water quality monitoring of The Ganga river from Gomukh to Hooghly to National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) Significant recognition: Awards, fellowships, international funding of distinction, technologies transferred/licensed etc.: MIRCEN-UNESCO Fellow (1998) DFG-INSA Fellow (2005) NASA Technical Brief Award (2008) Raman Research Fellow (2009) DAAD Fellow (2012) JSPS Fellow (2012) Selected list of Publications and Patents: Selected List of Publications: Publications in 2017 Genome insight and comparative pathogenomic analysis of Nesterenkonia jeotgali strain CD08_7 isolated from duodenal mucosa of Celiac Disease patient. Frontiers in Microbiology; https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00129 Bacillus maritimus sp. nov., a novel member of the genus Bacillus isolated from marine sediment. IJSEM; DOI 10.1099/ijsem.0.001569 Solibacillus kalamii sp. nov., isolated from a high-efficiency particulate arrestance filter system used in the International Space Station. IJSEM; DOI 10.1099/ijsem.0.001706

Microbial taxonomy and Biotechnology