Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

MBBS, DCH (UK), MRCPCH (UK), PgDip PID (UK), FRCPCH (UK) PhD (Paediatric Infection and Immunology)

Personal Statement

I am a paediatrician and clinical scientist, working as Scientist ‘E’ at ICMR–NIRT). I completed my paediatric training in the United Kingdom, with a focus on paediatric infectious diseases and immunology. I have worked as a clinician in both India and the UK, gaining diverse experience across healthcare settings. I hold DCH (2007), MRCPCH (2010), a Postgraduate Diploma in Paediatric Infectious Diseases (2015), FRCPCH (2021), and a PhD (2026). My research focuses on paediatric tuberculosis, including drug trials, vaccines, and the interaction between TB, immunity, and malnutrition. I also work on COVID-19, MIS-C, and their impact on paediatric TB.

Research Focus

• • Paediatrics tuberculosis
• • Drug trials
• • Vaccines including BCG
• • Interaction between TB, immunity, and malnutrition

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1. “Four-month Moxifloxacin containing Shorter Regimen versus 6 months Standard Regimen for Treatment of Drug sensitive TB disease in children aged 1 year to 18 years – Open labelled Randomised Controlled Trial (4M kids Study)”.

2. “Determination of Pharmacokinetics and Anti-mycobacterial Activity of Bedaqualine, Delamanid, Clofazimine and Linezolid in Children and Adolescents with Drug Resistant Tuberculosis”

3. Shortened RegiMen for Drug-susceptIbLE TB in Children (SMILE-TB)

Significant Publications

1. Joseph NH, Poovazhagi V, Kannan T, Karthik M, Suba S, Selvaraj A, Elilarasi S, Balasubramanian S, Hanna LE, Venkataraman A. Immunological Analysis of Different Treatment Strategies for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Indian Journal of Pediatrics. 2025 Jul;92(7):783-4.

2. Kumar NP, Balaji S, Devi PG, Ramraj B, Nancy A, Selvaraj N, Ahamed SF, Gunasundari A, Seetha A, Varadarajan P, Venkataraman A. Inflammatory cytokine responses in pediatric tuberculosis with or without SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. Journal of Infection. 2024 Dec 1;89(6):106314.

3. Venkataraman, A., Thiruvengadam, K., Balaji, S., Smuk, M., Hanna, L. E., & Prendergast, A. J. (2024). Evaluation of platelet indices as markers of tuberculosis among children in India. ERJ open research.

4. Kumar NP, Venkataraman A*, Nancy A, Selvaraj N, Moideen K, Ahamed SF, Renji RM, Sasidaran K, Kumar S, Periyakuppan M, Sangaralingam T. Immune Profiles in Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children with Cardiovascular Abnormalities. Viruses. 2023 Oct 27;15(11):2162.

5. Rajamanickam, A., Venkataraman A*, Kumar, N.P. et al. Alterations of adipokines, pancreatic hormones and incretins in acute and convalescent COVID-19 children. BMC Pediatrics 23, 156 (2023).

6. Rajamanickam A, Nathella PK, Venkataraman A*, et al. Levels of Complement Components in Children With Acute COVID-19 or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. JAMA Open Network. 2023;6(3):e231713.

7. Venkataraman A*, Pavan Kumar N, Varadarjan P, Nancy A, Rajamanickam A, Selladurai E, Sankaralingam T, Thiruvengadam K, Selvam R, Thimmaiah A, Natarajan S, Ramaswamy G, Putlibai S, Sadasivam K, Sundaram B, Hissar S, Ranganathan UD, Nutman TB and Babu S (2022) Role of matrix metalloproteinases in multi-system inflammatory syndrome and acute COVID-19 in children. Frontiers in Medicine. 2022;9:1050804.

8. Venkataraman A, Shanmugam S, Balaji S, Mani K, Shanmugavel AK, Muthuramalingam K, Hissar S, Thiruvengadam K, Selladurai E, Smuk M, Hanna LE. Comparison of two mycobacterial strains in performance of the whole blood mycobacterial growth inhibition assay in Indian children. Tuberculosis. 2022 Dec 1;137:102255.

9. Venkataraman A, Kumar NP, Hanna LE, Putlibai S, Karthick M, Rajamanikam A, Sadasivam K, Sundaram B, Babu S. Plasma biomarker profiling of PIMS-TS, COVID-19 and SARS-CoV2 seropositive children – a cross-sectional observational study from southern India. EBioMedicine. 2021 Apr 1;66:103317

10. Venkataraman A, Yusuff M, Liebeschuetz S, Riddell A, & Prendergast A. J. Management and outcome of Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine adverse reactions. Vaccine 33.41 (2015): 5470-5474

Awards and Honours

GOLD award for Research excellence Recognition: publication – Inflammatory Cytokine responses in Paediatric Tuberculosis with or without SARS-CoV-2 Seropositivity.

Research Profiles