Principal Investigator

Dr. Bharat Manna
Dr. Bharat Manna
Associate Professor
School of Bio Sciences and Technology (SBST)
VIT Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
bharat.manna@vit.ac.in

About

Bharat grew up in Mahishadal, West Bengal. During his B.Tech. in Biotechnology, he developed a strong interest in computational biology. He later transitioned into bioinformatics for his M.Tech. studies, graduating with a gold medal. He subsequently pursued Ph.D. at IIT Kharagpur, where his doctoral research employed atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how ionic liquids deconstruct lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production. During this period, his research interests expanded toward applying computational methods beyond single-molecule systems to the study of complex microbial communities. He pursued this direction further as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Auckland, where he spent three years developing and applying multi-omics pipelines to investigate environmental microbiomes, with a particular focus on oxidative stress, microbial metabolism, and the evolution of antimicrobial resistance in complex microbial communities. He started his independent career in 2026 at VIT Vellore, bringing together his expertise in molecular simulations and systems-level microbial biology under one theme: From Systems to Atoms.

Outside of research, Bharat enjoys travelling, cooking, theatre acting, and spending quality time with his family.

Professional Career

  • 2026–present
    Associate Professor
    School of Bio Sciences and Technology (SBST), VIT Vellore, India
  • 2022–2025
    Research Fellow
    University of Auckland, New Zealand
  • 2021–2022
    Post-Doctoral Fellow
    IISER Kolkata, India

Academic Background

  • 2017–2021
    Ph.D., Computational Biology
    Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
    Institute Doctoral Research Fellowship
  • 2015–2017
    M.Tech., Bioinformatics
    Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), West Bengal, India

Awards and Fellowships

  • 2020
    Promising Innovative Implementable Idea Award, SAMHAR-COVID19 Hackathon
    C-DAC, MeitY and DST (Govt. of India), with NVIDIA and OpenACC
    Led team Sanjeevani; proposed repurposable drug candidates later validated in an ICMR in vitro trial.
  • 2017
    Gold Medal, M.Tech. Bioinformatics
    MAKAUT, West Bengal, India
  • 2015–2017
    Post-Graduate Fellowship through GATE (BT)
    AICTE, India

Invited Talks

  • 7 May 2026
    Visualizing the Invisible: A Computational Journey from Systems to Atoms
    BioNEXUS 2026, Haldia Institute of Technology
    Edusat Hall, Haldia, West Bengal, India
  • 26 February 2025
    Understanding Antimicrobial Resistance Drivers in New Zealand's Drinking Water Systems
    Drinking Water Science Forum 2025, Water New Zealand
    Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand
  • 20 April 2022
    Integrating theoretical and experimental strategies to elucidate and ameliorate the inhibition of GH1 beta-glucosidases
    Department of Biological Sciences Seminar Series, IISER Kolkata
    Kolkata, India

Session Chair

  • 9–11 November 2024
    Session 9: Waste Management and Waste Valorization
    9th Asia Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development
    Osaka, Japan

Editorial and Peer Review

Peer reviewer: 30+ reviews. For details visit ORCID.