Rajeev Kumar Sukumaran

Dr Rajeev K Sukumaran is the activity lead for Biofuel program of the Centre for Biofuels, Microbial Processes and Technology Division, CSIR-NIIST and was the coordinator of PAN-CSIR multi laboratory program on 2G Ethanol. He played the lead technical role in setting up of the 2G ethanol pilot plant at NIIST, which is the first of its kind in India, commissioned in 2012. He had his Masters and PhD in Biotechnology from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Bioinformatics from Bigtec Pvt Ltd Bangalore. He started his career in Bigtec Pvt Ltd as Member Technical, Biotechnology Solutions, where he served as consultant to VMSRF (United Breweries Group R&D) on production of recombinant Human Insulin. He did his Post-Doctoral Studies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Now Ichan School of Medicine, Mount Sinai), New York on Molecular Immunology of Type I Diabetes, under Prof. Teodor Brumeanu, and later on at the Stem Cell Laboratory, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University Hospital, Singapore, under Prof. Arfiff Bongso, where the work was on elucidating the molecular reasons for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Pluripotency. He joined CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology in 2004 November and since then, is working on Biomass Conversion to Biofuels, and the facilitating technologies and science for lignocellulose conversion. His current interests are second generation biofuels, cellulase and other biomass hydrolysing enzymes, regulation of cellulase gene expression in filamentous fungi, heterologous protein expression in fungi and enzymes for speciality applications Integrated Biorefinery processes Biomass conversion to ethanol and chemicals through fermentative process Cellulases, Beta glucosidases and other biomass hydrolyzing enzymes Regulation of Cellulase Gene expression in filamentous fungi Heterologous Protein Expression in Filamentous Fungi Enzymes for glycosylation, and esterases for organic synthesis Bioprocess development for enzyme production and other microbial products including process optimizations following the DOE concepts Solid State Fermentation Process Development and Scale up Xenobiotic degradation by bacteria - Implications and Mechanisms