Meet The Team
Group Head - Food matrix lab
Veda Krishnan
"Lab is where your heart is" that's the motto of our group. We are a passionate bunch of multidisciplinary members who aims to understand the food derived compounds to elucidate their underlying mechanism involved in health implications. With this we aim to walk a mile ahead towards characterizing the matrix, understanding the matrix interactions, comprehensive analysis of various explanatory variables for nutritional traits towards bio-accessibility and bio-availability to bridge the existing gaps in nutrition research. Even-though we work on many nutrients, let me tell you "Carbohydrates are my first love"
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Co-Investigator & Pr.Scientist
Archana Singh
Dr Archana Singh has a vast experience in the field of nutrition & stress (Nutri-O-Stress). Contributed immensely to the International sequencing projects of Rice, Tomato, pigeon pea, mustard, brinjal, sugarcane, and bitter gourd. She has established very cost-effective & user-friendly seed priming techniques for abiotic stress management (salinity & drought). She spearheaded towards understanding RS synthesis in rice grain and first time established a positive correlation between starch debranching pullulanase enzyme with the resistant starch (RS) content as well as assay techniques. She is also engaged in unraveling the dynamics of starch granule bio-genesis for improved starch quality in rice and indices of nutritional diversity during rice aging.
Email: sarchana19@gmail.com
PhD Scholar (2021-2025)
Deepanyeta Goswami
Fascinated by the biomolecules and their ever-expanding repertoire of functions that run this earthly life, I had the opportunity to study protein quality in my master’s in the Division of Biochemistry at the ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Continuing my journey, I qualified ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF(Ph.D.) – 2021 with AIR-1 in Plant Biochemistry/Biochemistry and joined Dr. Veda Krishnan’s Food matrix lab to work on carbohydrate quality and their nutritional aspects, specifically on the comparative newbie in the area, the “Slowly Digestible Starch.”
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Email: deepanyetag@gmail.com
DBT-Junior Research Fellow (2022-2025)
C S Keerthana
I, C S Keerthana, have completed my bachelor's and master's in Botany from St. Teresa's College Ernakulam Kerala. I want to explore different fields of life science, to do an application level research to improve the well being of people and the surrounding environment. . Currently my work focuses on vitamin D2 (Ergosterol) and its extraction and characterization from niche medicinal mushroom (Lentinula edodes).
Email: cskeerthana07@gmail.com
Master's student (2022-2024)
Mohammed Salman C K
I, Mohammed Salman C K, completed my B.Sc. (Hons) in Agriculture from Kerala Agricultural University. My passion for research led me to secure the ICAR-JRF (Postgraduate Fellowship), and I got subsequently admitted to the Division of Biochemistry, IARI for my Master's degree. Currently, my research focuses on developing glucose nano sensors to measure the inherent glycemic potential of food matrices. I am particularly interested in simulative digestion models and their utilization in nutritional biochemistry, as they allow me to unravel the underlying mechanisms that can significantly bridge food to health.By being a
part of Food Matrix Lab, I am embarking on my ambitious research career.
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Email: salmanckmohammed@gmail.com
PhD Scholar (2023-2027)
Myself, Rahna fathima , currently persuing Ph.D in Biochemistry at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. My Interest in research field grew up with me from learning “Biochemisty; chemistry within biological life”.I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Biochemistry from Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu. My goal is to make sincere involvement and curious participation during exploration in research. My work focus on “Satiety Signatures in Millet”,under the Guidance of Dr.Vedakrishnan
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Email: rahnadhilshath19@gmail.com
Rahna fathima
PhD Scholar (2023-2027)
Chinmaya Behera
I, Chinmaya Behera completed my Bachelor’s in Chemistry (Hons) from Berhampur University, Odisha and Master’s in Biochemistry from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha. After qualifying ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF(Ph.D.)-2023 entrance examination, Joined ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Currently I am pursuing my Doctoral degree under the Guidance of Dr. Veda Krishnan. My goal is to become a Nutritional Biochemist and utilizing my knowledge in Biochemistry to contribute to advancements in Human Health and Nutrition.
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Email: chinmayabehera311@gmail.com
Summer Intern
Agrima Viraj
I am Agrima Viraj, a third-year undergraduate student pursuing B.Sc. in Biosciences from Banasthali Vidyapith University, Jaipur, Rajasthan. With a budding interest in cell and molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, I've gained hands-on experience in protein estimation and SDS-PAGE analysis during a training at the KaviKrishna Laboratory in IIT Guwahati. Iam eager to further refine my skills in these fields for future career growth.
Summer Intern
Muskan Beura
I am Muskan Beura, currently pursuing Master in Plant Science, at the Central University of Kerala. I joined Dr. Veda Krishnan's lab as a summer intern for my post-graduate degree program. I've worked on the Anti-diabetic mechanism of Lentinula edodes and vitamin D2, Ergosterol.
Intern
Sneha Pandey
I am Sneha Pandey, an M.Sc graduate in Food Technology from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. My previous research focused on studying the thermo-mechanical properties of nine millets using the Mixolab and their cookie-making behaviour. Presently, I'm excited to embark on this new journey as an intern under Dr. Veda Krishnan, to deepen my understanding of the biochemical and nutritional intricacies of cereals.
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Ex-Master's student (2021-2023)
Shuvarghya Chakraborty
Mr. Shuvarghya Chakraborty completed B. Sc (Hons.) Agriculture from Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati university, West Bengal. He bagged ICAR-JRF (2021) AIR-1 in PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY group and joined Division of Biochemistry, ICAR-IARI for Masters in Biochemistry. His personal life incidents motivated him to pursue his research towards understanding natural therapeutics towards diabetes management. He is actively pursuing to characterize functional polysaccharides having anti-diabetic potential from medicinal mushrooms Also, he was fascinated by the word “cell signaling” and wants to dig deeper into the complex world of anti-diabetic cellular mechanisms; especially how functional polysaccharides work in cellular level to cure diabetes.
“Food matrix lab in Division of Biochemistry is a source of intrinsic motivation and lots of positive energy for me and allow me to pursue my interest in human health improvement domain”.
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Email: suvarghya1999@gmail.com
Ex-DBT-Junior Research Fellow (2022-2023)
Sanjeev Kumar
Mr. Sanjeev Kumar completed his B.Sc.(hons) Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and M.Sc. Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. He is interested in plant system. My interest is in plant metabolomic engineering. Currently I am working on vitamin D2 (Ergosterol) and its extraction and characterization from niche medicinal mushroom (Lentinula edodes).
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Email: sanjeevyash9@gmail.com
Ex-Master's student (2020-2022)
Debarati Mondal
Ms. Mondal worked on binary interactions (Starch-lipid interactions) and its effect on glycemic potential.
Her sincere attempts to make research jargon free always added some freshness and was lucky to bag various recognitions. She received ‘People Choice Award’ in the International Sci-art Image Competition organized by Indian National Science Academy-Indian National Young Academy of Science (INSA-INYAS), IIT Hyderabad, Carbon lab in collaboration with National Young Academy of Bangladesh (NYAB), Thai Young Scientists Academy (TYSA). She received 3 best poster awards, second prize in flash talk, and also a second prize in the Doodle Art Competition- State Via Plate (National Nutrition Month’ 2021) organized by the Department of Food Technology, Bhaskar Acharya College of Applied Sciences & University of Delhi, India. She also received the first NABARD-Professor V.L. Chopra Gold Medal Award of the Year 2021 and Best Student of the Year 2021 Award in the 60th Convocation of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India and joined ICGEB, New Delhi for doctoral research.
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Email: debaratimondal7991@gmail.com
Ex-Master's student
Sohel Rahaman
Research interest was to develop starch quality matrix (SQM) to identify fibre rich Indian rice varieties with low glycaemic potential. Mr. Rahaman recieved World bank funded NAHEP-CAAST funding for research training under Dr. U. Mabalirajan at CSIR-IICB, Kolkata.
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Email: sohail.rahaman7@gmail.com
Master's Trainee (2017)
Haris Iqbal
Mr.Haris joined our group for Master's research. he was pursuing his degree at Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Natural Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He initiated work on "Identifying high resistant starch (RS) rice" through characterizing the fractions of starch quality - rapidly digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS) and RS.
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Email: hariskhan1146@gmail.com
Trainee - Summer project (2019)
Madhurpreet Kaur
Ms. Kaur was instrumental towards understanding the existed starch degradation heterogeneity between pigmented and non-pigmented rice varieties. She developed the in vitro tool of starch hydrolyzation kinetics to analyze the inherent glycemic potential (IGP) of food crops.
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Email: madhurpre@gmail.com
SERB-JRF
Monika Awana
Ms. Awana's journey started when she joined as a JRF in SERB funded project - pullulanase-based identification of high-resistant starch rice. She cleared CSIR-NET, DBT as well as GATE. She also bagged many best poster awards in various national and international conferences.
Email: monika.awana5@gmail.com
Master's trainee
Devika
Ms. Devika, while pursuing Master's degree at MACFAST, Thiruvalla joined Food Matrix Lab as summer intern.
"LAB IS WHERE HEART IS"
Motto of our group
We are always open to new people and ideas to engage with.