ABOUT MEGurudeeban Selvaraj, Ph.D. MISVGS is a highly skilled and self-motivated computational biochemist with over seven years of experience in academic research. He is an expert in utilizing chemical and computational biology tools for biopharmaceuticals and biologics. Currently, GS is focused on developing graph neural network based models or tools for predicting the molecular properties of key pharmaceutical agents. Additionally, he is involved in the development of generative models for new chemical design. GS joined Prof. GHP's lab at Concordia as an Mitacs Globalink Research Awardee (GRA) in November 2019, and subsequently continued his academic research as a research associate.
Prior to joining Prof. GHP’s lab, GS conducted research in computational biology and chemistry in Prof. Wei's lab at Henan University of Technology from 2017 to 2019. In the role equivalent to Research Assistant Professor, GS's main objectives were to discover precise cancer biomarkers and identify potential drug targets. This experience enabled GS to realize his passion and aptitude for designing mRNA, miRNA, and lncRNA biomarkers specific to various cancer types. Moreover, GS utilized the Gaussian program to study the structural, mechanical, and optical properties of microbial toxins and key pharmaceutical agents. Furthermore, GS made significant strides in developing subunit vaccines for Cervical Papilloma using human papillomavirus (HPV) genomics and immunomics data. GS was raised in the beautiful state of Southern India, Tamil Nadu. GS completed his schooling at Government high school and higher secondary school in his hometown in the Erode district. GS received his bachelor's in Biochemistry to strengthen his understanding of the chemistry of biomolecules in the living organism from Bharathiar University. GS completed his master's in Biotechnology with a minor in marine biological science from Annamalai University. As a master, GS worked in Dr. Ram's lab, where GS studied the mechanism of action of metabolites from plants in a diabetic animal model. GS got analytical training to characterize the metabolites in Dr.Rao's lab, CSIR-CFTRI, Mysore. This project led me to discover my enthusiasm and strengths in phytomedicine-based drug discovery and understanding of the drug-disease mechanism. GS started doctorate research in Biotechnology with a minor in marine biological science at Annamalai University. In December 2009, GS joined Dr. Ram's Lab where he used in vivo and in vitro techniques to characterize new metabolites from plants for the management of diabetes mellitus (DM) and tested drug-disease mechanisms in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) animal models and protein-drug docking approaches as a Ph.D. thesis. Then, GS joined Dr. Cakmak's lab in September 2014, as a postdoctoral research associate at Istanbul Medeniyet University, where he deployed in vitro molecular characterization techniques for new DPP-IV inhibitory peptides from microphytes for the management of DM. |
"Action speaks louder than words"Alma mater :
TN State Board Govt. High School (SSLC) TN State Board Govt. Higher Sec. School (HSC) Bharathiar Univeristy (BSc) Annamalai University (MSc, PhD) Istanbul Medeniyet Univesity (Postdoc) Henan University of Technology (Postdoc) Concordia University (Postdoc) Concordia University (Current) Current Position: Research Associate in Computational Biology and Chemistry Strategists Research Initiative |
Highlights of research and published articles in Media
Mitacs - What do researchers do when stuck abroad? Work on a COVID-19 vaccine
Concordia University - Two international postdocs are finding ways to defeat the virus that has left them stranded in Montreal
La Presse - Coincés à Montréal, deux chercheurs en exil planchent sur un vaccin
Montreal Blogs - Scientists In Montreal Have Made 'Good Progress' On A COVID-19 Vaccine
Daily Hive Montreal - Concordia University researchers developing COVID-19 vaccine
CTV News hosts Professor Gilles Peslherbe regarding potential COVID-19 vaccine
Global News The Concordia researcher developing a COVID-19 vaccine from home
Innovations of the world (July 29, 2021): AI Québec AI drives solutions for COVID-19 vaccine (pages 82-83)
News-Medical Life Science (Jun 1, 2021) : Scientists explain possible causes of anaphylaxis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination
Daily pioneer Magazine (December 11, 2018): TN Scientists claim drug breakthrough to cure diabetes
NewsRx : Diabetes Week, 65, ISSN: 1537-1433, BUTTER® ID: 004604713 (April 30, 2012): Scientists at Annamalai University Target Diabetes
Concordia University - Two international postdocs are finding ways to defeat the virus that has left them stranded in Montreal
La Presse - Coincés à Montréal, deux chercheurs en exil planchent sur un vaccin
Montreal Blogs - Scientists In Montreal Have Made 'Good Progress' On A COVID-19 Vaccine
Daily Hive Montreal - Concordia University researchers developing COVID-19 vaccine
CTV News hosts Professor Gilles Peslherbe regarding potential COVID-19 vaccine
Global News The Concordia researcher developing a COVID-19 vaccine from home
Innovations of the world (July 29, 2021): AI Québec AI drives solutions for COVID-19 vaccine (pages 82-83)
News-Medical Life Science (Jun 1, 2021) : Scientists explain possible causes of anaphylaxis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination
Daily pioneer Magazine (December 11, 2018): TN Scientists claim drug breakthrough to cure diabetes
NewsRx : Diabetes Week, 65, ISSN: 1537-1433, BUTTER® ID: 004604713 (April 30, 2012): Scientists at Annamalai University Target Diabetes
Research interests
My research is focusing on interdisciplinary science based on the flexible opportunities provided by my academic mentors and available resource in the workstation. I love to learn new things greater and smarter ----"If you want to be powerful, educate yourself"
- Computational Functional Genomics (transcriptomics, gene ontology, PPI network, functional network and gene set enrichment analysis, machine learning and predictive modeling),
- Immunomics (immunoinformatics, immune epitope prediction, and vaccine design)
- Pharmaco-informatics (modeling, docking, MD simulation, QSAR, Library construction, and machine learning)
- Network Pharmacology (systems pharmacology and drug repurposing)
- AI and machine learning-based app development for small molecules and epitopes design
Countries Visited
Concordia University, Canada (Research) 2019 ; University of Paris-SUD, France (Training), 2019 ; Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Research), Hong Kong, 2018 ; Henan University of Technology, China (Research), 2017; Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey, (Research), 2014
Experimental & Computational Skills
High-performance computing (HPC) system
- Using resources and clusters in Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) formerly Compute Canada, Calcul Québec and CERMM for different omics and chemical data analytics
Computational Biology (Multi-omics)
- R packages : Limma, WGCNA, H2O
- Softwares : Cytoscape (plug-ins)
- Web-interface : NetworkAnalyst, Galaxy, MG-RAST, QIIME (for NGS data analysis)
- Sequence analysis : MEGA 5.0, BioEdit, Mfold (RNA Structure Prediction)
- Languages : HTML, Python basic
- Operating Systems : Windows & LINUX basic
- Package : MS Office and Packages for NGS data analysis
- Statistical software : Origin, GraphPad Instat
Computational Chemistry (Drug Design)
- Cheminformatics : RDKit, PaDEL, Deepchem, COSMOtherm, EPI-SUITE, JChem for Excel
- Docking : AutoDock, Molecular Forecaster, Discovery Studio, PyRx
- Simulation : GROMACS, NAMD (Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics)
- Visuvalization : VMD, Discovery Studio, PyMol, Open Babel, LigPlot, Chimera
- Web-interface : SwissDock, HADDOCK
- QM/MM : Gaussian program, Discovery Studio
Machine Learning
- Machine Learning : Lazypredict, SVM, RF, XGBoot (Classification and Regression)
- Deep Learning : PyToruch (Graph neural networks)
- Web-platform : GoogleColab
Laboratory Skills
- Biomedical Science: Anti-diabetic, acute toxicity, analgesic, anti-pyretic, anti-oxidant and diabetic foot ulcer on experimental animals (Albino rats, Swiss mice)
- Molecular Techniques: Isolation of DNA, PCR Amplification, Electrophoresis (Agarose, SDS-PAGE), and ELSIA
- Microalgae biotechnology: Identification, Culture techniques, Cryopreservation, Stress induced biodiesel feedstock production, Influence of antibiotics and different media components on growth of microalgae
- Nanobiotechnology: Nanoparticle synthesis, Characterization and Biomedical applications
- Plant tissue culture techniques: Different type of callus induction, Effect of phyto-hormones on direct & indirect method for plantlet regeneration, Ex vivo transplantation
- Environmental Biotechnology: Dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD, Salinity, pH, Isolation of bioflim bacteria
- Analytical Techniques for isolation of metabolites from plants : Auto analyzer for biochemical studies, Chromatographic methods (Column, TLC, HPLC, GC–MS, HPLC-MS)
- Analysis of secondary metabolites from plants
- Bioprocess Techniques Enzyme production using different sources through the plant pathogenic micro organisms and enzyme kinetics