About me

I am Vyshakh Rajachandran. I have a Masters in Microbiology from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus. I am a budding Evolutionary Biologist with a taste for Computational Genomics of Bacterial Pathogens. My research interests revolve around development of effective analytical and therapeutic approaches to combat antibiotic resistant and hypervirulent pathogens. I use a combination of phylogenetics and comparative genomics approaches to detect footprints of adaptive evolution in bacterial genomes. More details about my research interests and projects can be seen in the ‘Research’ page.

I am a strong proponent of Open Science Initiative, i.e., to bring equity in the science community. For a very long time Science has been the monopoly of elites, and rest of the world remained mere under-represented underdogs particularly due to racism and lack of resources to access or do science. Nowadays, the situation has improved a lot, but definitely has not become equal in terms of opportunities and resources. A large proportion of the world still live in third-world countries, where financial resources and opportunities to do science are scarce and practically inadequate. The divide between elite and under-represented has been made even deep with the exorbitant subscription policies of several top journals. This situation posits a serious hindrance to several under-privileged sections of the Science community. We need to bring a change to this system of science, where financial resources dictate the right to access or do science.

I started this blog as a small initiative from my side to communicate science the best possible way I could so as to make an impact to this status quo. Apart from research, I am interested in building a conducive environ for meaningful, simple and effective science communication platform. This serves multiple purposes; first, proper communication of science helps to inform laymen about the complex scientific principles without compromising its essence. This helps to minimize, and eventually eradicate the fallacy of misinformation, pseudoscience and the subsequent ‘infodemics’ (anyone with access to Internet during COVID-19 would know). Second, it helps to enlighten budding minds about the intricacies and possibilities of science, and what it can offer us. Last but not the least, it helps to circumvent the many hindrances posed by the exclusiveness of science, thereby opens up a modicum of inclusivity.

I am also the Founder of BioBattalion (a multi-dimensional platform for Biological Science Communication). I extend my wholehearted gratitude to Dr. Parvathi JR, founder of Science in Doses (a sciencetoon cum communication platform for science) for motivating and sharing thoughts to develop my own personal signature for this great initiative.