Yes.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar.

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University.

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University. So when my doctoral research focuses on. New road protection potential for planned error bioactives in Alzheimer's disease.

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University. So when my doctoral research focuses on. New road protection potential for planned error bioactives in Alzheimer's disease. So my work involves. Therapeutic like molecular boiler cheese are lower models preclinical animal models. As well as. Cellular Models. I uh, the output of my research. Leads to multiple peer reviewed publications. As well as a. Presented the work in most of the. International and. National conferences. So following my PhD. I started my journey in recombinant therapeutic development industries. The leading organizations in India. Like a buyer needs. India and Anthem boycenses. And I also worked in international exposure in Netherlands as a process leader in a medical device company for one and half years. So correct. Currently at Anthem Biosensors I'm involved in. Development of recombinant. Uh, proteins like stable cell line development? Molecular cloning. And siRNA designed a project. Which all involves in GMP oriented research.

Okay, Dr. Kumar, thanks for starting. You mentioned your interest in the assistant professor position—can you tell me a bit more about your academic background and how you moved into research?

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University. So when my doctoral research focuses on. New road protection potential for planned error bioactives in Alzheimer's disease. So my work involves. Therapeutic like molecular boiler cheese are lower models preclinical animal models. As well as. Cellular Models. I uh, the output of my research. Leads to multiple peer reviewed publications. As well as a. Presented the work in most of the. International and. National conferences. So following my PhD. I started my journey in recombinant therapeutic development industries. The leading organizations in India. Like a buyer needs. India and Anthem boycenses. And I also worked in international exposure in Netherlands as a process leader in a medical device company for one and half years. So correct. Currently at Anthem Biosensors I'm involved in. Development of recombinant. Uh, proteins like stable cell line development? Molecular cloning. And siRNA designed a project. Which all involves in GMP oriented research. This strengthened my understanding. Which that is how the. Fundamental genetics and molecular biology leads to. The real health solution that. One Health work solutions.

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University. So when my doctoral research focuses on. New road protection potential for planned error bioactives in Alzheimer's disease. So my work involves. Therapeutic like molecular boiler cheese are lower models preclinical animal models. As well as. Cellular Models. I uh, the output of my research. Leads to multiple peer reviewed publications. As well as a. Presented the work in most of the. International and. National conferences. So following my PhD. I started my journey in recombinant therapeutic development industries. The leading organizations in India. Like a buyer needs. India and Anthem boycenses. And I also worked in international exposure in Netherlands as a process leader in a medical device company for one and half years. So correct. Currently at Anthem Biosensors I'm involved in. Development of recombinant. Uh, proteins like stable cell line development? Molecular cloning. And siRNA designed a project. Which all involves in GMP oriented research. This strengthened my understanding. Which that is how the. Fundamental genetics and molecular biology leads to. The real health solution that. One Health work solutions. So for. Alongside my research. I'm interested in. Like mentoring students, graduates, undergraduates and doctorate degrees. By mentoring them in terms of experimental design, data analysis and scientific communication. So with this combined experience in both. Academics. Industrial Research. As well as international exposure. I prefer I can. Like I am the suitable candidate for this.

Yeah. So first I would like to thank for giving me this opportunity. Uh for assistant professor position. So I am Sunil Kumar. Uh, I have, uh. Five years of combined industry as well as a research experience in molecular biology, recombinant therapeutic development, and transnational life sciences. Following I completed my PhD. In biochemistry from Bangalore University. So when my doctoral research focuses on. New road protection potential for planned error bioactives in Alzheimer's disease. So my work involves. Therapeutic like molecular boiler cheese are lower models preclinical animal models. As well as. Cellular Models. I uh, the output of my research. Leads to multiple peer reviewed publications. As well as a. Presented the work in most of the. International and. National conferences. So following my PhD. I started my journey in recombinant therapeutic development industries. The leading organizations in India. Like a buyer needs. India and Anthem boycenses. And I also worked in international exposure in Netherlands as a process leader in a medical device company for one and half years. So correct. Currently at Anthem Biosensors I'm involved in. Development of recombinant. Uh, proteins like stable cell line development? Molecular cloning. And siRNA designed a project. Which all involves in GMP oriented research. This strengthened my understanding. Which that is how the. Fundamental genetics and molecular biology leads to. The real health solution that. One Health work solutions. So for. Alongside my research. I'm interested in. Like mentoring students, graduates, undergraduates and doctorate degrees. By mentoring them in terms of experimental design, data analysis and scientific communication. So with this combined experience in both. Academics. Industrial Research. As well as international exposure. I prefer I can. Like I am the suitable candidate for this. Assistant Professor. And I can make a meaningful contribution to teaching, research and student mentoring at VIT. And I'm highly motivated. To pursue a faculty role here.

Alright, so you’ve got five years combining industry and research in molecular biology and recombinant therapeutics, plus a PhD in biochemistry from Bangalore University. Anything else you’d like to add about your research interests or what’s brought you to this field? Or is that a fair summary?

So your doctoral work focused on neuroprotection and plant-derived bioactives for Alzheimer's disease — that's quite specialized. Did you have a chance to collaborate with other departments or labs during that research, or was it mostly independent work?

You’ve worked across molecular biology, recombinant therapeutics, and even had international experience. When you’re teaching students—what’s one foundational concept in your field you find especially important for them to understand early on?

Dr. Kumar, I see your thesis dealt with plant-derived bioactives modulating amyloid-beta aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease, and you’ve published on Cassia tora’s neuroprotective effects. How did you approach explaining the significance of amyloid-beta aggregation to students unfamiliar with neurodegenerative pathways?

Okay, so you’ve mentored students at various levels while leading research in molecular biology and therapeutics, and you see a strong link between foundational genetics and real-world health solutions. Can you give me a concrete example of a time you helped a student bridge the gap between theory in the classroom and hands-on research in the lab?

Alright, so you've combined academic research in neuroprotection with hands-on work in recombinant protein development, plus mentoring students at every level. You mentioned guiding students in experimental design and data analysis—can you walk me through a specific instance where a student struggled to connect theory to practice, and how you helped them make that leap?

Yes, sure. So actually an intern student that is a post graduate student Mtech students joined the. In my company. So currently at that time I am working in SI RNA based. On knockdown of a few of our genes. So I. Taught him like completely out to design an SI RNA as well as the SH RNA. So both the methodologies we are applying. To check. Which methods are going to help us to completely knock down of our gene of interest whether siRNA will works and shrna so the both that designs will be bit. Complicated like. Which bioinformatics tools? Or in silico approaches. We are going to use for our designing of SI RNA as SH RNA we. Starting first and then later on. Which cell line we are going to? To study our UH. A gene of interest. Whether like we used. Depends on the protein and depends on the expression system of our. Protein. So we have chosen at. Two to three different, uh. And cancer cells. So to check. Whether like SI, RNA or the shrna will. Not known. Most of the protein expression level. And also thought. The postgraduate student. Like how to quantify the? Proteins like. No. Or upon knocking off the complete protein, how to check its expression by using? Western blot are by using protein-based analytical methods. So in that way I guided him. Like from starting from. Designing of our SIRNSHRNA as well as from. The protein expression. As well as. Umm, the. Like the quantity of. The protein expression it has loosed by using. So that. Helps him to complete a. Like on small. Project for an intern to submit their. Synthesis work in their uh. Academia.

Alright, thanks for sharing that example — it’s clear you’re comfortable guiding students through complex hands-on work. Now, given your background in molecular biology and recombinant therapeutics, where do you see the most promising and fundable research directions over the next few years? What kinds of grants or external funding would you target to support those projects?

No, actually the first when. The students joined our team. So first we need to. Atalim like how to. What is our uh. The uh teamworks, which are the. Areas we are. Most of the things we are going to work. So that. We will first introduce them. These are the areas we are going to work. So in the. The same way so we. Choose an intern in such a way that. Those who are interested in. Learning these type of activities whether they are interesting in. Like a bioanalytical based. As well as. The current trending in current trends for consider like knocking off. Or the knocking out the gene by using Sir and SH RNA or CRISPR based technology. So first we will choose an intern in such a way that and then we will give them a demonstration. Like as well as. Few of the literatures we will support them. To completely go through the literature and followed by use. Some of the. Tools and. To design. Internally like. 1st we will ask them to design. And then we will give them like. How to design and what are the approaches we will? Give while designing our. Desired, uh, Gene. That all approaches we will support them. And then, finally, we will. Tell him like and Betlab experiments we are going to approach by step-by-step from. How to from designing till? Protein analysis by western lot are by another. Other protein. So we will use to monitor. At least one to two times. Each experiment how he is going to performing so based on that. That that may helps him. Like a. To understand. The concept in theory as well as in laboratory. Practical mode also. So that it helps in. For his M tech theory or M tech? Uh, uh, curriculum. To explain to their external supervisors. So in that way, we used to help them for M Tech students.

No, actually the first when. The students joined our team. So first we need to. Atalim like how to. What is our uh. The uh teamworks, which are the. Areas we are. Most of the things we are going to work. So that. We will first introduce them. These are the areas we are going to work. So in the. The same way so we. Choose an intern in such a way that. Those who are interested in. Learning these type of activities whether they are interesting in. Like a bioanalytical based. As well as. The current trending in current trends for consider like knocking off. Or the knocking out the gene by using Sir and SH RNA or CRISPR based technology. So first we will choose an intern in such a way that and then we will give them a demonstration. Like as well as. Few of the literatures we will support them. To completely go through the literature and followed by use. Some of the. Tools and. To design. Internally like. 1st we will ask them to design. And then we will give them like. How to design and what are the approaches we will? Give while designing our. Desired, uh, Gene. That all approaches we will support them. And then, finally, we will. Tell him like and Betlab experiments we are going to approach by step-by-step from. How to from designing till? Protein analysis by western lot are by another. Other protein. So we will use to monitor. At least one to two times. Each experiment how he is going to performing so based on that. That that may helps him. Like a. To understand. The concept in theory as well as in laboratory. Practical mode also. So that it helps in. For his M tech theory or M tech? Uh, uh, curriculum. To explain to their external supervisors. So in that way, we used to help them for M Tech students. That's it.

No, actually the first when. The students joined our team. So first we need to. Atalim like how to. What is our uh. The uh teamworks, which are the. Areas we are. Most of the things we are going to work.

Alright, you’re saying you start by orienting students to the team’s focus areas and tasks before diving into the technical work. Let’s switch gears—given your molecular biology and recombinant therapeutics background, where do you see the most fundable research directions over the next three years? What kinds of grants or funding sources would you target for VIT?

Alright, you mentioned using current trends like siRNA, shRNA, and CRISPR in student mentoring, and you seem comfortable integrating emerging techniques into practical learning. Shifting focus — considering your research in molecular biology and recombinant therapeutics, where do you see the most fundable research directions over the next three years, and which kinds of grants or funding sources would you realistically target to support that work at VIT?

Right, you’re describing a very hands-on, scaffolded mentoring process, starting with orientation and literature, then letting students design and test their own approaches under your supervision. Now, thinking about your work in recombinant therapeutics and molecular biology, where do you see the most viable opportunities for securing external research funding over the next three years? Which granting agencies or industry partners would you target, specifically?

Now currently, whatever the. Therapeutics which is going on mainly depends on the mRNA based vaccines. So as you know, like. Past few years back we are suffered with. COVID-19. So then we started immediately with the mRNA based vaccines like how to. Like sort it out. The immediate. Disease by using mRNA based because when you go for a DNA based. Therapeutics so that DNA with. I enter into the human system again. It will convert into an RNA. Like I can mRNA and then desert protein will produce. So in. Instead of that the current therapeutics is going on mainly the mRNA based therapeutics or mRNA based vaccine so that. That Alps like immediate. That in that way that helps us. Like how exact the protein which we will get from the mRNA instead of the plasma DNA? So in the. That way the first approach what I will give. For next three years is. I will try to design. The mRNA therapeutic based vaccine or mRNA therapeutic-based therapeutics.

Now currently, whatever the. Therapeutics which is going on mainly depends on the mRNA based vaccines. So as you know, like. Past few years back we are suffered with. COVID-19. So then we started immediately with the mRNA based vaccines like how to. Like sort it out. The immediate. Disease by using mRNA based because when you go for a DNA based. Therapeutics so that DNA with. I enter into the human system again. It will convert into an RNA. Like I can mRNA and then desert protein will produce. So in. Instead of that the current therapeutics is going on mainly the mRNA based therapeutics or mRNA based vaccine so that. That Alps like immediate. That in that way that helps us. Like how exact the protein which we will get from the mRNA instead of the plasma DNA? So in the. That way the first approach what I will give. For next three years is. I will try to design. The mRNA therapeutic based vaccine or mRNA therapeutic-based therapeutics. To design 2 minutes. Uh, to get up, uh. For current development, current project approaches.

Now currently, whatever the. Therapeutics which is going on mainly depends on the mRNA based vaccines. So as you know, like. Past few years back we are suffered with. COVID-19. So then we started immediately with the mRNA based vaccines like how to. Like sort it out. The immediate. Disease by using mRNA based because when you go for a DNA based. Therapeutics so that DNA with. I enter into the human system again. It will convert into an RNA. Like I can mRNA and then desert protein will produce. So in. Instead of that the current therapeutics is going on mainly the mRNA based therapeutics or mRNA based vaccine so that. That Alps like immediate. That in that way that helps us. Like how exact the protein which we will get from the mRNA instead of the plasma DNA? So in the. That way the first approach what I will give. For next three years is. I will try to design. The mRNA therapeutic based vaccine or mRNA therapeutic-based therapeutics. To design 2 minutes. Uh, to get up, uh. For current development, current project approaches. And then the target for funding agencies mainly. Department of Biotechnology, that is DBT or. Serve D. And the ICMR based project. Because these are all mainly with the American Medical medicinal approaches. So I will prefer ICMR based. Platform is also good for us. To get a funding from these agencies.

Now currently, whatever the. Therapeutics which is going on mainly depends on the mRNA based vaccines. So as you know, like. Past few years back we are suffered with. COVID-19. So then we started immediately with the mRNA based vaccines like how to. Like sort it out. The immediate. Disease by using mRNA based because when you go for a DNA based. Therapeutics so that DNA with. I enter into the human system again. It will convert into an RNA. Like I can mRNA and then desert protein will produce. So in. Instead of that the current therapeutics is going on mainly the mRNA based therapeutics or mRNA based vaccine so that. That Alps like immediate. That in that way that helps us. Like how exact the protein which we will get from the mRNA instead of the plasma DNA? So in the. That way the first approach what I will give. For next three years is. I will try to design. The mRNA therapeutic based vaccine or mRNA therapeutic-based therapeutics. To design 2 minutes. Uh, to get up, uh. For current development, current project approaches. And then the target for funding agencies mainly. Department of Biotechnology, that is DBT or. Serve D. And the ICMR based project. Because these are all mainly with the American Medical medicinal approaches. So I will prefer ICMR based. Platform is also good for us. To get a funding from these agencies. That's it.

Alright, you’re positioning mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines as a promising area for external funding—especially post-COVID. Which specific agencies or industry partners would you approach to support this work? For example, would you target DBT, ICMR, or international bodies like the NIH, or is there a particular industry partner you have in mind?

Alright, you see mRNA-based therapeutics as the main opportunity, especially with the shift after COVID. Now, thinking about your industry experience at Anthem Biosciences and your time abroad, how would you leverage those connections and methods to build sustainable partnerships between VIT University and industry players? What would you do to actually make those collaborations work for both sides?

You’re targeting DBT and ICMR for mRNA therapeutics, with a focus on immediate disease response — that’s clear. Thinking about industry partnerships, have you had any experience integrating those collaborations within academic research? How would you leverage that at VIT to strengthen industry-academia initiatives?

Alright, you emphasized targeting DBT and ICMR for mRNA therapeutics, and you clearly see rapid-response vaccine development as a high-impact, fundable direction. Now, drawing from your industry experience at Anthem Biosciences and your time abroad, how would you bring your expertise in integrating industry partnerships into VIT University’s academic framework to strengthen its industry-academia collaboration initiatives?

Yeah, actually I worked. In uh. International exposure like in Netherlands as a medical device company which is a Gmp-oriented lab. And I know like completely. A good manufacturing practices how? The medical devices or how the drugs will manufacture and what are the regulatory standards we are going to perform.

Yeah, actually I worked. In uh. International exposure like in Netherlands as a medical device company which is a Gmp-oriented lab. And I know like completely. A good manufacturing practices how? The medical devices or how the drugs will manufacture and what are the regulatory standards we are going to perform. And then at the current. Anthem Boy sensors are mainly involved in development of vaccines as well as development of recombinant therapeutics. So. As I know like the currently. What is the? Main like working hours. For the current. Current today. So which are the vaccines or which are the? Molecules requires. Required for. The current uh. Marketing in terms of? Any agencies like European FDA or Indian market? So now I I got an idea. Uh, with working with both G and GMB and international exposure as well as at current Anthem biosensors in vaccine development. So we. With this expertise. I will. Start initiating. The VAT. First, I will understand the infrastructure behind VIT, whatever the current infrastructure available at VIT. And then? Based on my industrial exposure, I will try to bridge the gap between academics and. Because as I know. In academics, we have a lot of ideas. How to? A design from designing till. The product. So a lot of ideas will tell. But the industrial industry? Like how to produce the product? Handout to manufacture as well as the marketing. So. These gaps. From academic to industry. The bits between these caps I will try to sort it out. Once I enter into the VAT organization. So in that way I will try to. Initiate the. Academic as well as the industry based on my expertise.

Yeah, actually I worked. In uh. International exposure like in Netherlands as a medical device company which is a Gmp-oriented lab. And I know like completely. A good manufacturing practices how? The medical devices or how the drugs will manufacture and what are the regulatory standards we are going to perform. And then at the current. Anthem Boy sensors are mainly involved in development of vaccines as well as development of recombinant therapeutics. So. As I know like the currently. What is the? Main like working hours. For the current. Current today. So which are the vaccines or which are the? Molecules requires. Required for. The current uh. Marketing in terms of? Any agencies like European FDA or Indian market? So now I I got an idea. Uh, with working with both G and GMB and international exposure as well as at current Anthem biosensors in vaccine development.

Yeah, actually I worked. In uh. International exposure like in Netherlands as a medical device company which is a Gmp-oriented lab. And I know like completely. A good manufacturing practices how? The medical devices or how the drugs will manufacture and what are the regulatory standards we are going to perform. And then at the current. Anthem Boy sensors are mainly involved in development of vaccines as well as development of recombinant therapeutics. So. As I know like the currently. What is the? Main like working hours. For the current. Current today. So which are the vaccines or which are the? Molecules requires. Required for. The current uh. Marketing in terms of? Any agencies like European FDA or Indian market? So now I I got an idea. Uh, with working with both G and GMB and international exposure as well as at current Anthem biosensors in vaccine development. So we. With this expertise. I will. Start initiating. The VAT. First, I will understand the infrastructure behind VIT, whatever the current infrastructure available at VIT. And then? Based on my industrial exposure, I will try to bridge the gap between academics and. Because as I know. In academics, we have a lot of ideas. How to? A design from designing till. The product. So a lot of ideas will tell. But the industrial industry? Like how to produce the product? Handout to manufacture as well as the marketing. So. These gaps. From academic to industry. The bits between these caps I will try to sort it out. Once I enter into the VAT organization. So in that way I will try to. Initiate the. Academic as well as the industry based on my expertise. Thank you.

Yeah, actually I worked. In uh. International exposure like in Netherlands as a medical device company which is a Gmp-oriented lab. And I know like completely. A good manufacturing practices how? The medical devices or how the drugs will manufacture and what are the regulatory standards we are going to perform. And then at the current. Anthem Boy sensors are mainly involved in development of vaccines as well as development of recombinant therapeutics. So. As I know like the currently. What is the? Main like working hours. For the current. Current today. So which are the vaccines or which are the? Molecules requires. Required for. The current uh. Marketing in terms of? Any agencies like European FDA or Indian market?

Let’s switch gears to teaching. Suppose you’re running a laboratory course at VIT with 60 students, and you can’t rely on traditional lectures or slides. How would you structure that class to make sure students are actively learning and really engaging with the material?

Okay, so you’ve worked in both GMP-oriented labs and vaccine development settings, and you understand not just the science but the regulatory and manufacturing landscape. Let’s switch gears to teaching. Suppose you’re running a laboratory course at VIT with 60 students, and you can’t rely on traditional lectures or slides. How would you structure that class to make sure students are actually engaged and learning practical skills, not just memorizing procedures?

Okay, so you’ve worked in both GMP labs and vaccine development, and you’ve got insight into regulatory standards and what industry actually needs. Let’s switch gears to teaching. Suppose you’re running a laboratory course at VIT with 60 students, and you can’t rely on traditional lectures or slides. How would you structure that class to make sure students are actively engaged and learning hands-on?

Alright, you’d first assess VIT’s infrastructure, then use your GMP and vaccine development experience to bridge gaps between academic ideas and real-world industry demands—especially around regulatory and manufacturing. That’s clear. Let’s talk about teaching now. Suppose you’re running a laboratory course at VIT with 60 students, and you can’t rely on traditional lectures or slides. How would you structure that class to make sure every student is actively engaged and actually learns by doing?

Okay, so you’d start by understanding VIT’s infrastructure, then use your GMP experience and industry insight to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world manufacturing and regulation. Now, let’s switch gears to teaching. Suppose you’re running a laboratory course at VIT with 60 students, and you can’t rely on traditional lectures or slides. How would you structure that class to make sure the students actually engage and learn the material hands-on?

Currently I I I use like. Research oriented teaching. And industrial oriented concept because first I need to understand. The listening capacity. Are the observance of the students. Like if you are you, if you said like 1660 students. So based on the number of. And I will. I can design my. Teaching approaches. Whether I can use the slides? In the slides and also. Bold I can use. And also the interactive sessions. That helps the students can listen or capture the. And I also engages with. Industrial approaches and real-world applications. And as well as a. The interacting with giving an. Visas and also. I will try to. Engage with the. Faculties from industries. Or faculties from uh. Other Deepak cross functional departments are from. Other institutes. So in that way. So the people can. Students can gain. The concept easily. Instead of by using only with the slides or only with the board. So this. These are the approaches I will try to. Incorporate. While teaching my. For my students with more than a 60. Students connect. Classroom. That's it.

So you’d mix in real-world case studies, guest lectures, and interactive sessions to keep the material grounded and engaging, not just rely on slides or the board. Let’s say you notice a third of the students seem disengaged and aren’t participating during hands-on labs—what’s your strategy to pull them back in and make sure they actually learn the material?

Yeah. So first I will try to. Analyze the root cause behind the student like. Why is not this thing? Engage with the classes. So first I will understand the. Concept Why is not engaging? And then I will try to give an extra. Attention to him to understand the concept easily and I will try to explain the complex things in a simple manner so that he can easily understand things and if needed I will try to take a separate session for them. To explain in detail. To understand. The concept things and and also to understand the root cause behind why is not interested in for this type this type of code. So in the. So if we give a more attention to the. Disengaged students. So that helps. Students to learn. The concept easily. And also to understand and also the students also can interact easily with us. Like why they are not interested? I not interested in engaging the. So in that's why I will try to. I make sure the students the more. Students can. Easily gain the concept. Whether it is a simple or whether it is a complex concept? Easily they can understood by. Using. You know various methodologies as I mentioned in earlier question.

Alright, Dr., let’s talk about responsibilities beyond teaching and research. Say you join our department and discover that outcome assessment data for accreditation is inconsistent across courses. How would you go about fixing that?

So first I will try to. Learn the department modules. What are the modules they are? Uh, like describe for the. Add different courses. And also the grasping capability of the students. So if as you mentioned that there is. Different like. Assessment was observed in the students. So we will. Try to change the module or we will try to change the syllabus what we have. Described in our module in that way. So that will be helpful for the students. To gain more. Add tension to the whatever the concept which we are. In the revised version. So that is one thing. And the second thing is as I mentioned. So maybe. Changing the. For the faculty or changing the. Umm way of for teaching it helps us. To get more attention or more assessment? Uh, like possible assessment in students feedback? That's it.

Alright, so you’d start by reviewing department modules and possibly revising the syllabus or teaching methods to improve consistency in outcome assessment. Can you give me a concrete example from your previous experience—maybe at Anthem Biosciences or in your academic work—where you had to standardize data collection or reporting for compliance or accreditation purposes? What steps did you take to ensure alignment across teams or courses?

Yeah, though the first thing is. As I mentioned. When we are designing our syllabus. So we have to cross check with our all the department leads. Our department, the faculties. Whether we can able to? Uh, give a design these type of courses for. Btech or Mtech students, is it OK for them? To understand the concept and uh. And also. And what are the labor because? Not only the theory. We can use the. Laboratory models as well. Because. As I mentioned as you asked me, like when? Anthem Biosensors. Now so like. I'm just giving an example. So when you start at our. Product. Any product. From designing. Till the market. So we are. Bit transparent in terms of designing the. That whatever the plasmid constant and. Transacting which? Which? Uh, saline, we are going to use. And what what is the product which which desired product we are getting out from that? And what is the? Nature of the protein or the. DNA or mRNA, whatever the protein is and. Which market it is going to have, whether it is in? A complete um. Syringe form or the tablet form, whatever it may be and what are the regulatory compliance regulations requirement for these? So in that way. So from. Rind till the market. Everyone should have. The transparency in terms of. Knowing the molecule. In depth knowledge. As well as the marketing people. So in the same way. For design. Like. Of designing our the modules. So we should have like bit. Aspirancy in designing the modules and also we have to understand the. Concept while designing. And also. First mention like. Before designing, we have to introduce the laboratory. Concept also. So only the theory will not help for the students. So if you can include a laboratory courses. Along with the complex theory so that may helpful for the students. Which will get easily assessed. With our courses and maybe we may get. I have more feedback.

Yeah, though the first thing is. As I mentioned. When we are designing our syllabus. So we have to cross check with our all the department leads. Our department, the faculties. Whether we can able to? Uh, give a design these type of courses for. Btech or Mtech students, is it OK for them? To understand the concept and uh. And also. And what are the labor because? Not only the theory. We can use the. Laboratory models as well. Because. As I mentioned as you asked me, like when? Anthem Biosensors. Now so like. I'm just giving an example. So when you start at our. Product. Any product. From designing. Till the market. So we are. Bit transparent in terms of designing the. That whatever the plasmid constant and. Transacting which? Which? Uh, saline, we are going to use. And what what is the product which which desired product we are getting out from that? And what is the? Nature of the protein or the. DNA or mRNA, whatever the protein is and. Which market it is going to have, whether it is in? A complete um. Syringe form or the tablet form, whatever it may be and what are the regulatory compliance regulations requirement for these? So in that way. So from. Rind till the market. Everyone should have. The transparency in terms of. Knowing the molecule. In depth knowledge. As well as the marketing people. So in the same way. For design. Like. Of designing our the modules. So we should have like bit. Aspirancy in designing the modules and also we have to understand the. Concept while designing. And also. First mention like. Before designing, we have to introduce the laboratory. Concept also. So only the theory will not help for the students. So if you can include a laboratory courses. Along with the complex theory so that may helpful for the students. Which will get easily assessed. With our courses and maybe we may get. I have more feedback. And Danny got previous questions. That's it.

Let’s shift to something a bit more nuanced. Imagine a student formally complains that your grading is biased, while at the same time your department head is pressuring you to raise pass rates. How would you handle this situation, balancing academic integrity with those institutional pressures?

Alright, so you emphasized transparency and alignment from the very start—making sure everyone, from the lab to the market, is clear on requirements and compliance, and you’d bring that same approach to academic modules and labs. Let’s shift to something a bit more nuanced. Imagine a student formally complains that your grading is biased, while at the same time your department head is pressuring you to raise pass rates. How would you approach navigating that situation?

Now as I mentioned in the earlier answer. So we have to transparency in terms of. The passing, whatever. So if needed. We have to display. The sheet. So I. And we have two transparency in terms of. Giving the marksheet to the students for their review. So with that we are the. A story the professor is doing any. Not biased in terms of. Passing the student or giving the any grading or like this. So in that way. So we should have transparency. And also the whatever in the during the correction of the. Mark sheet. So we should always, we should maintain the transparency after every corrections, we have to give it to the students for their review and we have to take them. Feedback. Whether whatever we have done is correct or not. So in that way. So whether? The students will. Raise there any complaints. So in that way we have to. Avoid these type of nuances. From students. That's it.

You emphasized transparency by sharing grading sheets with students and collecting their feedback after each correction, to make sure there’s no perception of bias. But what if your department head directly asks you to adjust grades upward for borderline cases, arguing it’s needed for the department’s reputation? How would you handle that request?

So usually I will not agree for these type of activities. Because that is not correct. To, uh, impact only for the uh. Institution reputation. We will not do all these, uh, activities. So. So we will. I will inform. Directly to the. Head of the institution or. Head of the department like. And so I am not able to do all these activities. So because. Because it is not. It is. Not a correct as per the. Norms so. So in that way I will try to convince him like. So if needed, we can give an uh. Second round of. If needed like students can take. The next. Coming exams. To get. Or if needed, we can. Uh, assign like take. Two more classes. To understand concept easily like that. Apart from that, I don't, I don't. Set. Uh yeah, like. Increasing the. Marks by taking like from. Head of the department. That's it.

Given your expertise in recombinant therapeutics and molecular biology, do you have industry connections that could translate into internship or placement opportunities for VIT students?

Yes. So currently the the students, those who have learned the biosensors. In terms of like molecular cell line, molecular biology or bioprocessing technology.

Yes. So currently the the students, those who have learned the biosensors. In terms of like molecular cell line, molecular biology or bioprocessing technology. So these type of students I can help them. To get an internships. Or the placement opportunities are currently at Anthem Biosensors. And I also worked that. Bayonets India Private Limited. So that company is also working in biopharma based approaches as well as a preclinical based approach.

Yes. So currently the the students, those who have learned the biosensors. In terms of like molecular cell line, molecular biology or bioprocessing technology. So these type of students I can help them. To get an internships. Or the placement opportunities are currently at Anthem Biosensors. And I also worked that. Bayonets India Private Limited. So that company is also working in biopharma based approaches as well as a preclinical based approach. So I have a contact of. From few of the companies in Bangalore. So so those those students who have. Interested to. Gain more knowledge on. These type of activities like cell and molecular biology. Bioprocessing Technology. And definitely I will try them. To get an internship at UH. Repeated organization in. Thank you.

Alright, you started to mention students learning biosensors and molecular biology—can you give me a concrete example of a company or specific contact from your industry network where you’ve actually placed a student, or where you could facilitate an internship or collaborative project for VIT students?

Right, you’ve got direct industry connections and experience placing students, which is valuable. Now, I’d like to verify a few key skills for this Assistant Professor (Research) role. Let’s start with expertise in bioinformatics, biomedical genetics, genetic counselling, cancer bioinformatics, or food science and technology. Can you walk me through a specific scenario where you applied one of these areas—maybe a project, consultation, or research—showing how you approached the problem and what tools or methods you used?

Okay, so you’ve got active connections with Anthem Biosciences and Bayonets India, and you’d help students get placements or internships in molecular biology and bioprocessing. Now, thinking about communication and teaching—when you explain a complex topic to students, what’s your approach for breaking it down so even those without a strong background can understand?

So the copper the complex topic, first we have to give. A small, broader idea. Like, uh. Like what is the? The concept behind? The presentation. And also we have to use the case studies. Are we able to use a? Some graphics if we needed. To understand the complex easily. And. Use both the. Presentation as well as the board. Because they come sometimes the traditional approaches like by using a board. Which helps students to grasp easily when compared to. The presentation mode that is a slide mode. So. And also. If the students requires more on. The complex concepts. So I will try to. I get an expert. Like faculty? From those concepts. To get a like a. Uh, like through virtually I can arrange an, uh, call. From the. Our like faculty. So to give a lecturer. Uh, regarding the concept. Complex concepts, so in that way. So I will try to. Interact with the students, whether the students can understand. The complex concepts easily or not? If not, I will. I will try to engage with. So many different approaches. And try to. Uh, engage them. To accept like to. Gain the concept easily as possible. That's it.

Alright, you mentioned using case studies and graphics, plus traditional board work, and even bringing in guest faculty to help students understand tough topics. Can you give me a specific example of a time you explained a complex concept—maybe something like CRISPR or recombinant DNA—to a student group with mixed backgrounds? What did you actually do to make sure everyone got it?

Yeah. So first like CRISPR as we know like that is one of the main gene editing tool. That currently people are using. So first I will uh. Uh, try to give an overview of CRISPR. Like what? What is the crisper? And why the CRISPR is going to use and what is the? Like output from the CRISPR? What is the exact? Current. Applications by using CRISPR. So then like designing approaches like. How we are using the guide? Design the guide RNA. And whether we are going to use the knock in or whether we're going to use the knockout? By using both in the. We use both knockin as well as the knockout. And then? Slowly I will try to explain one of the gene. And for one of the gene, I will try to explain how to design a guide RNA. And which cell line we are going to use for that? Knocking out or knocking in? The guide RNA. And out check its expression whether the gene is completely knocked out or completely. It's got over expressed. So in that way from starting basic till the application I will try to engage them. Theoretically as well as the practically so that. In between, whatever the doubts the students may arise, so I will try to. Give supporting literature as well as I will try to give my. Based on my expertise, I will try to answer them so in that way people can easily understand the complex concepts like CRISPR. Yes, that's it.

Yeah. So first like CRISPR as we know like that is one of the main gene editing tool. That currently people are using.

So you started by saying CRISPR is a gene editing tool, but walk me through exactly how you taught that to a group with different backgrounds—did you use a story, an analogy, or a hands-on model? What did you actually do in the classroom to make sure everyone followed?

You walked through CRISPR from the basics to guide RNA design, and even checked expression in cell lines—sounds like you made sure students got both theory and hands-on exposure. Now, about student evaluation: what’s your process for setting up fair exam questions and grading, so you’re confident the results actually reflect what students learned?

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So based on the syllabus, the modules and based on my teaching expertise. And as per the VIT is norms. So I will try to design the questions in such a way that. So many questions. From this topic. So I will not. Only frame the questions only from. The topic which I. Explained. OK, I like confidently are very good. So I will try to design a question paper in such a way that. That it will cover the complete module. And also based on the. Questions and based on the marks. So I will try to. Uh, in which module and which? Which are the questions which will come? So based on that I will create in that way I will try to. Get the feedback from the students like how is my. Teaching expertise and how. I know whether I need to improve. Any of the from the teaching methodology that will help us to. Improve my. Teaching as well. That's it So exactly what is the? Profile behind. Assistant Professor Research. Compared to only the extended profit So exactly what is the? Profile behind. Assistant Professor Research. Compared to only the extended profit. That's my question.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So based on the syllabus, the modules and based on my teaching expertise. And as per the VIT is norms. So I will try to design the questions in such a way that. So many questions. From this topic. So I will not. Only frame the questions only from. The topic which I. Explained. OK, I like confidently are very good. So I will try to design a question paper in such a way that. That it will cover the complete module. And also based on the. Questions and based on the marks. So I will try to. Uh, in which module and which? Which are the questions which will come? So based on that I will create in that way I will try to. Get the feedback from the students like how is my. Teaching expertise and how. I know whether I need to improve. Any of the from the teaching methodology that will help us to. Improve my. Teaching as well.

Yes.

Alright, Dr., we're wrapping up. Is there anything you'd like to ask about the Assistant Professor (Research) role or the team?

Alright, you design exam questions to cover the whole module and use student feedback to refine your teaching approach. Dr., we're wrapping up. Is there anything you'd like to ask about the Assistant Professor (Research) role or the team?