Staff Profile

Dr Priya R

Designation: Scientist D

Division/Unit: Bacteriology

Email: priya[dot]raj[at]icmr[dot]gov[dot]in

Educational Qualification

M.Sc. PhD

Personal Statement

My primary areas of research include pediatric tuberculosis and pneumonia, as well as the molecular detection of respiratory pathogens and whole-genome sequencing of pediatric TB isolates. A protocol for the simultaneous detection of tuberculosis and pneumonia using multiplex real-time PCR has been successfully developed and is currently being carried out by our team. We have also developed a novel protocol for stool concentration to increase the yield of MTB by molecular detection. In pediatric TB. Another area of my research interest is non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). We have standardised an in-house drug susceptibility testing of NTM isolates. Additionally, we are currently developing a rapid molecular assay for the diagnosis of NTM.

Research Focus

• Newer diagnostics for Pediatric TB
• Molecular Characterisation of Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM)
• Differential diagnosis of Respiratory diseases
• Molecular diagnosis of pulmonary mycoses
• Validation of newer TB diagnostics

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1. Characterisation of M. abscessus, M. kansasii, M. avium-intracellulare Complex - the most common NTM species isolated from presumptive TB patients

2. Diagnostic evaluation of tongue swab-based tests for the detection of M. tuberculosis in presumptive pulmonary TB patients.

3. Assessing the utility of different biological samples (respiratory samples, stool, urine) for pediatric pulmonary TB detection - a cross-sectional study

4. Evaluation of AfuPEPLISA kits for diagnosis of Aspergillosis in ATT non-responders and presumptive TB patients

Significant Publications

• Provide citation details of top 10 important publications (preferably with IF of more than 5)

• Rajendran P, Giridaran P, Thomas SV, Nagaraj N, Thiruvengadam K, Radhika G, Samyuktha R, Selvaraju S, Frederick A, Padmapriyadarsini C, Shanmugam S. Characterisation of M. tuberculosis isolates obtained from Tamil Nadu Prevalence survey by whole genome sequencing analysis. Infect Gen Evol 2025

• Rajendran P, Nishant K, Himanshu V, Sivakumar S, Thiruvengadam K, Ramamoorthy T, Kishore R, Sidhartha G, Pranav P, Mahmud H, Sridhar A, Ranjani R, Jyoti K, Moe M, Reeti H, Sanjeev S, Bhavin V, Umesh A, Padmapriyadarsini C Multicentric validation of the proof of concept for the utility of Trueprep extracted DNA in line probe assay testing. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2025

• Rajendran P, Thomas SV, Balaji S, Selladurai E, Jayachandran G, Malayappan A, Bhaskar A, Palanisamy S, Ramamoorthy T, Hasini S, Hissar S. Paediatric pulmonary disease-are we diagnosing it right? Front Pediatr. Apr 2024

• Rajendran P, Padmapriyadarsini C, Nagarajan N, Samyuktha R, Govindaraju V, Golla R, Ashokkumar S, Shanmugam S. Molecular Characterisation of M. kansasii isolates by Whole-Genome Sequencing. Pathogens. October 2023

• Rajendran P, Saini S, Kumar N, Vashistha H, Thiruvengadam K, Ramamoorthy T, Gopalaswamy R, Kayesth J, Alavadi U, Moore M, Joshi RP, Ramachandran R, Sridhar Anand S, Shanmugam S, Padmapriyadarsini C. Establishing proof of concept for the utility of Trueprep extracted DNA in Line Probe Assay testing. The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, October 2023