Current R&D Activities:
Human Biomonitoing
Post human genome era has attracted scientists to identify DNA and protein based early biomarkers for exposure, effect and susceptibility. Surrogate tissues for exposure and effect are also being identified. One such cell type is the peripheral blood lymphocyte. Our studies using lymphocytes to study the exposure and effect biomarkers in exposed and normal human population has led to establishment of basal levels of DNA damage in human population in India [2, 6, 18, 20, 26]. In vitro studies have also been done using these cell types to identify antioxidant and antigenotoxic properties of dietary substances [1, 5]. Studies on the usefulness of lymphocyte cytochrome P450s as a peripheral marker for susceptibility showed that genotypic and phenotypic expression of P450s in lymphocytes closely parallels that in brain and liver and can be used as a surrogate tissue for human biomonitoring studies [3, 4, 7, 23, 36,]. 

In vivo and in vitro 
In vivo studies in mouse [17, 19, 24, 31, 32] and transgenic drosophila and in vitro studies in different cell lines of animal and human origin have helped delineate the mechanism of genotoxicity of different compounds. Multiple mouse organ genotoxicity assessment is also done using comet assay [30]. 

Alternate to animals in toxicology 
To minimize the use of animals in toxicology, our group uses cell lines for assessing the effects of chemicals and understanding their mechanism of action [11,37]. An alternate animal model in transgenic Drosophila Melanogaster for in vivo genotoxicity assessment has been developed and validated and is currently being used to assess and understand the mechanism of action of genotoxic potential of chemicals using different drosophila mutants [12,13,22,25,37]. A plant based model has also been developed to assess the ecogenotoxicity potential [33]. 

Recent projects
Our group has now initiated research in niche areas such as: 
Nanomaterial Toxicity (carbon fullerenes, metals and metal oxides) 
Metabolomics (Cellular and metabolic pathways) 
Bioinformatics (DNA damage and repair genes) and in silico predictive toxicology

Awards/Honours/ Distinctions:
Major Awards
Shakuntala Amir Chand Prize 2002, in the field of Biomedical Research, ICMR, 2005. 
BOYSCAST Fellowship 2000, in the field of Molecular Epidemiology, DST, 2000. 
CSIR Young Scientist Award 1999 in the field of Biological Sciences, CSIR, 1999. 
INSA Medal For Young Scientist 1993 in the field of Medical Sciences, INSA, 1993. 

Honours / Distinction 
Elected, Vice President, Environmental Mutagen Society of India, 2006.
Elected, Member, National Academy of Medical Sciences, India, 2005.
Fellow, Society of Toxicology, India, 2004>
Elected, Member, National Academy of Sciences, India, 1998.