Dr. P.A. Balakumaran

Dr. P. A. Balakumaran
Professional Experience

Professional Experience and Affiliations

  • 2020 - till now - Scientist, CSIR - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
  • 2017 - 2019 - Manager and Scientist R&D - Proklean Technologies Private Limited, Chennai, India
  • Jan 2019 - Dec 2019 - Subject Matter Expert for Biology - Six Red Marbles, Chennai, India
  • 2018-2019 - Faculty - Academy of Competitive Examinations and Research Training, Chennai, India
  • 2013-2014 - DAAD Fellow and Visiting Scientist, Institute of Applied Microbiology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
  • 2012-2016 - CSIR Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, India
  • 2011-2012 - Lady Tata Memorial Trust (Mumbai) - Junior Scholar - Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, India

 

Achievements & Awards

Awards and Recognitions

  • 2022 SERB International Research Experience (SIRE) fellowship, SERB, Govt. of India for research in the field of yeast metabolic engineering at Aachen University, Germany
  • 2013-2014 DAAD Fellowship,Institute of Applied Microbiology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
  • 2012-2016 CSIR Senior Research Fellowship for research in Biochemical engineering domain
  • 2011-2012 Lady Tata Memorial Trust junior scholarship
  • 2003-2004 Student of the department Award
  • Expert member - Screening Committee - Tamil Nadu start up seed fund (TANSEED);
  • External expert for Interview committee in CSIR – NEERI, Nagpur;
  • External examiner for Ph.D examination and Expert member of Doctoral Committee in Department of Biotechnology, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu.

Reviewer in International Journals:

Journal of Biotechnolgy (Elsevier); Chemosphere ; Heliyon ; Peer J ; Biomass conversion and Biorefinery ; Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry; Journal of hazardous materials, Environmental Research etc.

Membership
  1. Member, European federation of Biotechnology
  2. Member, International Metabolic engineering society
  3. Life Member, Society for Biological engineering
  4. Life Member, Association of Microbiologists of India
  5. Life Member, Biotech Research Society of India
  6. Life member, Society of Biological chemists 
  7. Life member, Probiotic association of India
Publications
  1. Rooben Reena, Raveendran Sindhu, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran, Ashok Pandey, Mukesh Kumar Awasthi, Parameswaran Binod.2022. Insight into citric acid: A versatile organic acid. Fuel. 327. 125181.
  2. Ayon Tarafdar, Ranjna Sirohi, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran, R Reshmy, Aravind Madhavan, Raveendran Sindhu, Parameswaran Binod, Yogesh Kumar, Deepak Kumar, Sang Jun Sim. 2022. The hazardous threat of Bisphenol A: Toxicity, detection and remediation. Journal of hazardous materials. 423, 1270097.
  3. R Reshmy, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran, K Divakar, Eapen Philip, Aravind Madhavan, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, Ranjna Sirohi, Parameswaran Binod, Mukesh Kumar Awasthi, Raveendran Sindhu. 2022. Microbial valorization of lignin: Prospects and challenges. Bioresource Technology 344, 1-12.
  4. Kongkona Saikiaa,b, Dhanya Vishnua, Abiram Karanam Rathankumara,b,c, Balakumaran Palanisamy Athiyaman, Ramón Alberto Batista-Garcíac, Jorge Luis Folch-Mallole, Hubert Cabanab, and Vaidyanathan Vinoth Kumar. 2020. Development of a magnetically separable co-immobilized laccase and versatile peroxidase system for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to vanillin. Journal of Air & Waste Management Association. Doi: 10.1080/10962247.2020.1760958.
  5. Charumathi J, Balakumaran PA, Sankaranarayanan M 2017. Cofactor engineering improved CALB production in Pichia pastoris through heterologous expression of NADH oxidase and adenylate kinase. PLoS One, 12(7):e0181370. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181370.
  6. Charumathi J, Balakumaran PA, Meenakshisundaram S. 2017. Formate co-feeding improved Candida antarctica lipase B activity in Pichia pastoris. Research Journal of Biotechnology, 12(12).
  7. Balakumaran PA, Förster J, Zimmermann M, Charumathi J, Schmitz A, Czarnotta E, Lehnen M, Sudarsan S, Ebert BE, Blank LM, Meenakshisundaram S 2016. The trade-off of availability and growth inhibition through copper for the production of copper dependent enzymes by Pichia pastoris. BMC Biotechnology, 16:20. doi: 10.1186/s12896-016-0251-3.
  8. Balakumaran PA, Meenakshisundaram S 2015. Modelling of process parameters for enhanced production of Coenzyme Q10 from Rhodotorula glutinis. Preparative Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 45:398-410. doi: 10.1080/10826068.2014.923447.
  9. Yasodha T, Balakumaran PA, Harikumar M 2008. Karyotyping studies of traffic workers exposed to automobile exhaust. Asian Journal of Microbiology Biotechnology and Environmental Science, 10:405.

Book chapters:

  1. Kalivarathan Divakar, Muthu Suryia Prabha, Parameswaran Binod, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran. Microbial Enzymes for Production of Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. 2023. CRC press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003311164
  2. Reshmy R, Eapen Philip, Aravind Madhavan, Raveendran Sindhu, Parameswaran Binod, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran and Ashok Pandey. Potential utilization of fruit and vegetable wastes: an overview. In “Bioconversion of wastes to value added products”. Editors – Inamuddin and Anish Khan, Springer Nature, Switzerland AG. Doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-61837-7_11.
  3. Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran, Divakar K, Raveendran Sindhu, Ashok Pandey and Parameswaran Binod. Gut Microbes: Role in production of nutraceuticals. In “Bioprocess technologies for production of nutraceuticals and functional food products”. Editors - Amit Rai, Sudhir P Singh, Ashok Pandey, Christian Larroche and Carlos Ricardo Soccol. Elsevier, 10.1016/B978-0-12-823506-5.00004-7.
  4. Maria Paul Alphy, Palanisamy Athiyaman Balakumaran, Raveendran Sindhu, Ashok Pandey and Parameswaran Binod. Integrated bio-based processes for the production of industrially important chemicals. In “Circular Bioeconomy”. Editor – Sunita Varjaney, Elsevier, 10.1016/B978-0-323-89855-3.00024-8.
Academic Qualification
  • Ph.D- Biotechnology, Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, India, 2017
  • M.S. (By Research) - Biotechnology, Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, India, 2011
  • B.Tech - Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, India, 2007
Team
  1. Ms. Shalu Saseendran
  2. Ms. Amina Beevi
Research Interest

Recombinant protein production, Metabolic engineering, Synthetic biology, Microbial fermentation

If you are curious, self-motivated and interested to work in our above research you are welcome to contact me : balakumaranpa@niist.res.in with your detailed CV and an outline of your research interest in the above mentioned area.

Invited Speakers in conferences

Invited talks/Lectures delivered:

  1. Science lecture, DST- Vigyan Prasar – Biotechnology and its benefits to humanity, 9th Aug, 2021
  2. Chief Guest, National Webinar on “Biotechnology Industry expectation: Opportunities and knowledge gap”, Thiagarajar College, Madurai, Sep 8, 2021
  3. “13C based metabolic flux analysis” – IIT madras, Chennai (July 2-15, 2016)
  4. “Probiotic derived surfactants” – Karunya University, Coimbatore (10th & 11th October, 2019)
  5. “Heterologous production of laccase in Pichia pastoris” – St. Peter’s Engg. College, (Dec 9 – 13, 2019), Chennai

Conferences and workshops:

  1. Participated in International conference on Eco materials, ICEM-14, Feb 5-7, CSIR – NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
  2. Participated at the India EMBO symposium – Engineering meets evolution – Designing biological systems, 30 Jan – 01 Feb 2020, IIT madras, Chennai
  3. Presented and received first prize for the paper entitled DNA fingerprinting in forensic science in state level technical symposium organized by Mepco Schlenk College of Engineering, Sivakasi, India.
  4. Participated at Jülich Biotech day seminar on the theme White biotechnology bridges the gap between sustainable natural resources and valuable chemical products at Forschungszentrum, Jülich, Germany.
  5. Attended Indo-Italian workshop on Food Biotechnology and presented my research work on heterologous expression and enhanced production of laccase in Pichia pastoris at Punjabi university, Patiala, Punjab, India. (ICIB 2012).
  6. Presented poster on Production of Coenzyme Q10 from Rhodotorula glutinis at the International Congress on Bioprocesses in Food Industries (ICBF 2008) held at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
  7. Participated at the international workshop on scientific writing, IPR productization and research ethics and conference on advanced research technologies, jointly organized by Ohio State University, USA and CBT – Anna University, Chennai, India.
  8. Presented poster at Bioprocessing India 2015, International conference conducted at IIT Madras, Chennai (17-19 December 2015).
  9. Participant and speaker (about 13C metabolic flux analysis) at global initiative of academic networks (GIAN) on bioprocess and metabolic engineering, held at IIT Madras (2-15 July 2016).
Projects

Ongoing Research Projects

Principal investigator:

  1. A sustainable approach for oleochemicals production from agro and industrial residues using nonconventional oleaginous yeast and fungi. SERB – Core Research Grant (CRG) – 40 lakhs – 2023 to 2026.
  2. Polygammaglutamic acid and its blends as biodegradable material and an alternative to single use plastics. Department of Biotechnology (DBT) – 55 lakhs – 2023 to 2026.

Co-Investigator:

  1. Biorefinery approach in recovering high value products from vegetable and fruit wastes under circular economy frame – Department of Science and Technology (DST) – Indo-Italy project – 45.85 lakhs – 2021-2024.
  2. Biotechnological approaches promising grains and food free of Fusarium mycotoxins - Department of Science and Technology (DST) – Indo-Hungary project – 35 lakhs – 2021-2024.
Research Areas

Major research focus is on the microbial pathway engineering for enhanced production of industrially important compounds/metabolites. Research activities are also focused on genetic and process strategies to enhance heterologous protein production.

Metabolic engineering of Pichia pastoris for enhanced flux towards Squalene production

Linear polyunsaturated triterpene squalene exists in all organisms with immense application in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. New applications of squalene as an enhancer are ever increasing ensuing in its growing demand. Development of a Pichia model with accelerated Farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) precursor flux towards squalene and reduced squalene drain towards ergosterol is being tested in this study. Lipid droplets provide extra space for accumulation of squalene in cytoplasm. Following the overexpression of pathway genes and lipid biogenesis, fermentation experiments would be conducted to confirm the squalene yield and thereby optimize the process parameters and inhibitor concentration to further augment the production of squalene.

FPP
Molecular and process engineering strategies to enhance laccase production through yeast expression system

Laccases are blue multi-copper oxidases that play diverse roles in nature like lignification, delignification, dye degradation and biocatalysis. Selection of suitable host for large scale expression of the enzyme is crucial. Under these circumstance, Pichia pastoris (P.pastoris) offers excellent benefits over other hosts for recombinant protein production. Widely accepted as an efficient protein production host, P.pastoris offers several advantages like ease of genetic manipulation, requirement of inexpensive media, ability to achieve high protein yield and finally intricate posttranslational modifications. In this study, laccase was expressed under the control of AOX1 and GAP promoter in P. pastoris. 13C based metabolic flux analysis was applied to quantify the metabolic network of P. pastoris. Among 21 different additives tested, supplementation of selected amino acids with high energetic cost significantly augmented the laccase production during fed-batch cultivation to 600 U/mL and productivity to 3.5U/mL/h respectively.

GAP
Development of bioprocess strategies for enhanced production of pharmaceutically important Coenzyme Q10 from Rhodotorula glutinis

Nutraceuticals are considered as an alternative option to many critical diseases. Ubiquinone, a lipid soluble component also called as Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), apart from playing an important role in electron transport chain for ATP synthesis, also acts as an antioxidant. Moreover, it is also chosen as a therapeutic supplement for congestive heart failure besides being used as dietary supplement in energy drinks, active ingredient in cosmetic industry etc. Strain was improved through random mutagenesis. Fed-batch cultivation with optimized concentration of para hydroxy benzoic acid and soya oil enhanced the CoQ10 production to 78.2 mg/L

CoQ