K. Kaviarasan

Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Department of Biomedical Sciences

Dr. K. Kaviarasan is an associate professor with 15 years of research and teaching experience. After receiving a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Annamalai University in January 2010, he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2012) at Sankara Nethralaya's Vision Research Foundation. He spent a year as the diagnostic lab supervisor at Vasan Eye Care Hospital. He joined SRIHER as an assistant professor in 2014. He has received numerous awards, including the Best Paper Award at the International Atherosclerosis Conference (2008), University Research Studentship, and others. His academic achievements include an ICMR Senior Research Fellowship and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from DBT, India. He is currently a guest editor for JOVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) and a topic editor for Frontiers in Clinical Diabetes. He is a reviewer for numerous journals, including Frontiers in Pharmacology, BMC Endocrine Disorders, and PeerJ. He has 16 scientific publications to his credit and is currently working on two research projects. His main areas of interest are diabetes and its complications, ocular proteomics, and lipidomics.

Dhanashree Ratra

Sankara Nethralaya, Department of Vitreoretinal Diseases

Prof. Dhanashree Ratra is an accomplished vitreoretinal surgeon with more than two decades of experience. After MS Ophthalmology (1994) and FRCS from Edinburgh (1999), she completed a vitreoretinal fellowship in 1996. She has worked as a consultant at the Sankara Nethralaya Institute for 26 years. She has won many accolades, including the best fellow (1997), best consultant (2003), J M Pahwa award (2008), D B Chandra award (2010), best poster award in the American Academy of Ophthalmology (2011), best poster in the International Conference on Intraocular Inflammation (2016), best poster in IERG (2018), best research WOS (2018), best of IJO (2020), best peer review (2021), IJO Gold award (2022). She is the editor of the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology and Frontiers in Ophthalmology. She is a reviewer for many journals. Dr. Ratra has published 90 scientific publications and 12 chapters in books. Her main areas of interest are diabetic retinopathy, AMD, imaging, and AI.

Dhanavathy Grace

SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology

Dr. Dhanavathy Grace earned her M.Sc. degree with the distinction of a Gold Medal in Medical Biochemistry from Christian Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Vellore, and a Gold Medal award from the honorable President of India, Dr. Pranab Mukherjee, for an additional Master's degree in M.Tech. from VIT, Vellore. She earned her M.Phil and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and the SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), respectively. She has also distinguished herself with the best outgoing student award during her M.Sc. degree in Medical Biochemistry from CMCH-2001, Vellore. During her time as a visiting researcher at CMCH, Vellore, she was awarded a Fluid Research grant for the research project titled, "Effect of water extract of neem leaf (Azadirachta indica) on fasting plasma glucose in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic rats." Dr. Grace joined SRMIST as an assistant professor and worked on PCOS, epigenetic markers of cancer stem cells, and multidrug resistance in ovarian and endometrial cancers during her tenure. Recently, she received an industrial grant to screen anticancer compounds against ovarian and endometrial cancers. She has published more than ten international articles in peer-reviewed journals with a high impact factor.