Ayushman Mallick
Plant Molecular Physiology Lab — Division of Plant Physiology — ICAR-IARI, New Delhi
Plant biologist with expertise in molecular genetics, plant–microbe interactions, and computational structural biology.
Currently serving as Senior Research Fellow at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, contributing computational and molecular biology insights
to an ICAR-funded genome-editing project aimed at engineering climate-resilient rice. MS dissertation focused on characterising
the transcription factor CYCLOPS in Arachis hypogaea (groundnut) and mapping its downstream interactors in the root
nodule symbiosis (RNS) signalling network, employing site-directed mutagenesis, RNAi-based mutant generation, hairy root
transformation, confocal and electron microscopy, molecular docking, and in silico structural analyses.
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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, India
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Aug 2020 – Jul 2025 |
| Department of Biology, Integrated BS-MS Dual Degree |
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| Specialisation: Plant Biology & Evolution |
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| BS CGPA: 6.74 (Basic & Advanced Courses; 175 credits) |
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| MS CGPA: 9.0 (MS Project; 36 credits) · Cumulative CGPA: 7.2 |
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| MS Dissertation: Deciphering the Role of CYCLOPS in Root Nodule Symbiosis and Identifying Downstream Interactors in Arachis hypogaea |
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| Supervisor: Dr. Swarup Roy Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology |
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Bidhannagar Municipal School, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
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Jul 2018 – Jul 2020 |
| Higher Secondary (Class XI–XII), WBCHSE Board — Passed with Grade A |
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Bangiya Sahitya Kala Kendra, Kolkata
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2012 |
| PP-1 Certificate in Painting — First Division with Distinction |
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Life Sciences (XL) — Organised by IIT Roorkee
AIR: 13,616 · Score: 230 · Marks: 23.67/100 · Qualified
Life Sciences — Category: SC
Marks: 57.000 / 200 · Percentile: 80.01 · Category 3 (Lectureship) · Qualified
Plant Molecular Physiology Lab, Division of Plant Physiology
Project: “Enhancing Climate Resilience and Ensuring Food Security with Genome Editing Tools” (ICAR-funded, EFC-GET project)
Supervisor: Dr. Shivani Nagar, Scientist, Division of Plant Physiology, ICAR-IARI
- Contributing computational and molecular biology insights toward CRISPR-based genome editing for climate-resilient rice
- Conducting all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of rice ABA receptor and phosphatase proteins involved in the abscisic acid (ABA) signalling pathway using GROMACS on GPU-accelerated HPC clusters (Linux/SLURM/Python/JupyterNotebook)
- Developing computational workflows and molecular biology approaches towards elucidating mechanisms of plant abiotic stress tolerance, with emphasis on the ABA signalling pathway in Oryza sativa
Plant Signaling Lab, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Dr. Swarup Roy Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, IISER Tirupati
- Characterised the transcription factor CYCLOPS in Arachis hypogaea and mapped its role in the CCaMK–CYCLOPS signalling axis governing root nodule symbiosis
- Employed site-directed mutagenesis, RNAi-based mutant generation in groundnut, BiFC interaction assays, hairy root transformation, confocal and scanning electron microscopy, molecular docking, and in silico structural analyses
- Discovered candidate downstream interactors of CYCLOPS in the RNS signalling pathway
Plant Signaling Lab, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Dr. Swarup Roy Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, IISER Tirupati
- Investigated the CYCLOPS gene of Arachis hypogaea and its functional role in root nodule symbiosis signalling pathways
Plant Stress Biology Lab, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Dr. Annapurna Devi Allu, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, IISER Tirupati
- Worked on two novel identified genes of Arabidopsis thaliana; presented a poster on CRISPR-Cas cloning strategies and genetic modifications
Plant Signaling Lab, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Dr. Swarup Roy Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, IISER Tirupati
- Worked on the AhCCaMK gene of Arachis hypogaea; studied and documented nodulation characteristics of plant roots under genetic modification
Sciurid Lab, Department of Biology
Supervisor: Dr. Nandini Rajamani, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, IISER Tirupati
- Investigated the diet of small cat varieties in Central India; performed identification and classification of rodent skeletal and dental anatomy from jungle cat faecal samples
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Mallick, A. BoltzYML: a preprocessing-file generator for Boltz-2 ternary
(Protein 1 + Ligand + Protein 2) binding prediction.
Zenodo (2026).
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20397272.
[Software]
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Das, A., Pal, M., Price, A. H., Taria, S., Mallick, A., Sharma, M., Kumar, S., Ellur, R. K.,
Krishnan, S. G., Sathee, L., Jain, P. K., Dalal, M., Anandan, A., Panda, S., Kumari, A., Agarwal, M.,
& Chinnusamy, V. Haplotype-based multi-locus genome-wide association study reveals genomic regions
associated with reproductive stage high temperature stress tolerance in rice.
Plant Molecular Biology 116, 56 (2026).
DOI: 10.1007/s11103-026-01716-8.
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Mallick, A., Ramesh, R., Chinnusamy, V., Pandey, R., & Nagar, S.
Artificial Intelligence-Guided Genome Editing: Shaping the Future of Next-Generation Crop Improvement.
Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (Accepted, DOI pending).
Wet Lab:
Molecular cloning & gene expression · CRISPR-Cas editing strategies · Site-directed mutagenesis ·
RNAi-based mutant generation · Hairy root transformation · BiFC & protein–protein interaction assays ·
Tobacco infiltration · Confocal microscopy · Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) ·
Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis · Biochemical & bacterial assays
Computational:
GROMACS (all-atom MD simulations) · Python & Biopython · RNA-seq analysis ·
Whole genome analysis · PyMOL / UCSF Chimera / Discovery Studio · MEGA (phylogenetics) ·
ArcGIS · Molecular docking & PPI · Linux · HPC (SLURM) ·
Blender (biological molecular animation) ·
Cis-GS (developer) — PyQt5-based all-in-one desktop suite for cis-regulatory genomic analysis,
encompassing genome and sequence retrieval from public databases, expression quantification, data normalisation,
and downstream statistical analysis including K-means clustering and heatmap visualisation
Other:
Digital art & animation · Guitar · Rodent skeletal & dental identification
IISER Tirupati
Attended the multidisciplinary conference bridging chemistry, sustainability, and modern biotechnology at IISER Tirupati.
- Led and managed the IISER Tirupati Arts Club; coordinated cultural events, fests, inter-college competitions, and the club’s social media outreach
- GATE 2025 Qualified — Life Sciences (XL), February 2025
- CSIR-NET Qualified — Life Sciences, December 2025 (Category 3, Lectureship)
- Basic Python Coding — Completed with Grade A (Semester 5, IISER Tirupati, 2022)
- PP-1 Painting Certification — First Division with Distinction, Bangiya Sahitya Kala Kendra (2012)
- 1st Place — Group Melodrama, 8th Shishu Kishore Utsav (2016), organised by Shishu Kishore Academy, Govt. of West Bengal
- Participated in Republic Day Parade under office of Sub Divisional Magistrate and Sub Divisional Officer, Govt. of West Bengal (2015, 2016)
Bengali (Native) · English (Full Professional) · Hindi (Bilingual) · Japanese (Elementary)
- Guitarist (trained at Bangiya Sangeet Parishad)
- Marathon athlete (inter-institutional competitions at IITs, IISM, and other institutions, 2023–2025)
- Gardening and botanical illustration
- Light novel reading
- Football