If you are always looking to improve yourself as well as the others around you, SKB lab is a right option for you. This is the first set of plants grown in SKB Lab.

in Photo: Jin Hsien Choo, Emma Mayers, Chin Lin Wong, Suresh, David Richter and Tony Bui

Swagatam Das

Swagatam came from IISER, Bhopal after completing his BS-MS though the MAITRI scholarships program facilitating Australia-India relations. Swagatam is working on thermal responses in plants trying to optimise designing crops using AI tools.

Aaryan Chhabra

Aaryan came from IISER, Pune as a Master's thesis student and joined the lab for PhD in 2024. Aaryan is interested in uncovering the principles governing splicing and how genotypes, tissues, species influence these choices.

Ramya Ganesan

Ramya joined the lab for a PhD after completing Masters from IIT-Kharagpur. Ramya is interested in exploring how plants sense and respond to changes in temperature using every tool that is available!

Dhruv Sheth

Dhruv joined the lab to do his Honours and is pushing the boundaries on our understanding of genes and mechanisms underlying epigenetic gene silencing in Friedreich ataxia. Dhruv intends to set a record of fastest PhD in the lab!

James Georges

James came to SKB lab as a volunteer when he joined Monash and came back to do an Honours project in the lab. James started to work with Drosophila in the lab. Having completed his Honours, James is exploring how splicing changes might be contributing to cancer in his PhD.

Shourya Giri - Lab Manager

Shourya joined SKB Lab in 2025 and completed his Master's thesis. Shourya is working on determinants of tissue-specific splicing and an excellent contributer to the lab gaining the nick name "Lab Manager"!

Sureshkumar Balasubramanian

Sureshkumar Malluppatti Balasubramanian @ Suresh is interested in uncovering generalizable principles in biology. He provides great help to his group members by not interfering in their progress! In addition he is passionate to promote awareness of unconscious bias and systemic racism in Academia and strives to promote research ethics and integrity.

Chandan Pradhan

Chandan is our Monash-IITB academy student working on our collaborative project with Prof Rajesh Patkar from IIT-Mumbai. Chandan is exploring how pathogens may reprogram of the host transcriptomes shedding light of plant-pathogen interactions.

Chao Qin (~Sherlock)

Sherlock is another MPharmSci student doing  an Industry Placement in 2024. Sherlock is working with GATC lab to uncover the mechanisms of chromosomal perturbations regulating thermal responses in plants.  

Vi Bui

Vi Bui joined the SKB Lab in 2026 to carry out her Masters placement in PharmSci. Vi Bui is interested in understanding basic genetics and how epigenetics could influence gene regulatory networks.

Niki Naji Rad

Niki joined SKB Lab in 2026  to do her Honours thesis. Niki is working on sequence determinants that govern epigenetic silencing in Friedreich's ataxia.

Zeik Hargreaves

Zeik joined the lab as an undergraduate Industry Placement student in 2024. Zeik liked plants so much that he continues to explore thermal responses in plants.