Dr.Sabu Thomas
Director
director.coem@kerala.gov.in
Dr. Sabu Thomas has 28 years of research experience in environmental/clinical bacteriology and molecular microbiology as Faculty Scientist and Principal Investigator in Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology under the Dept. of Biotechnology, Government of India. The major research focuses are molecular biology of bacterial pathogens of gastrointestinal tract & chronic wound infections, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), biofilm and human microbiome. He has to his credit 95 research publications in national/international journals of repute, 15 book chapters, edited 3 academic books (Human Microbiome, Antimicrobial Resistance, Bacterial Biofilm) published by Springer Nature and Cambridge Scholars Publishing group, UK. Research includes strategies to control bacterial infections and AMR including biofilm inhibition, probiotic development, drug repurposing and combinatorial therapy. Another major focus is on human gut microbiome for the development of probiotics to control multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections and gut metagenome mining for human wellbeing.
Dr.Thomas was a member in the Second Indian Arctic Expedition team to study Polar microbiome and bioprospecting potential of microbes in the Arctic at 79o North and contributed substantially to the Polar Science research in India. As a Member of Global Task Force of World Health Organization (WHO), was instrumental in preparing a road map to control cholera by 2030. Currently, he is a Task Force Member in Indian Council of Medical Research, Govt. of India, Kerala State Nodal Officer in intersectoral AMR research, Expert Member in Kerala Biotechnology Commission and Member of several scientific committees of the prestigious institutes and Subject Expert in selection committees, Syllabus modification of Universities/R&D Institutes. He has received the Fellow Award in Medical Biotechnology of Society for Applied Biotechnology, Fellow Award (FAS) of the Kerala Academy of Sciences and Royal Society of Biology, London. He was honoured with the Best Scientist Catholicate award in 2022. Currently Dr. Thomas is the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Microbiome (CoEM), a new initiative of the Govt. of Kerala.