Genomics & Genome Informatics touching lives

We are a group of passionate researchers at the Vishwanath Cancer Care Foundation and previously at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) working towards using advanced Genomics and Data Analytics to understand biology and impact lives around us. 

Genetic Epidemiology & Population Genomes

Pathogen Genomics 

The recent declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation has prompted us to venure into research in this area as well as make the relevant Data, Research and Resources at the Vinod Scaria Lab at CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) in an open format to ensure that they are widely accessible as well as relevant. The programme would embrace the concepts of open-source and open access. 

Learn more at Open COVID-19

More on the Monkeypox Genomics and Genetic Epidemiology

More on Genomics of Lumpy Skin Disease Virus

The Bi4S Course has participants from over 40 countries making it a truly global educational initiative on Genomics and Bioinformatics for School Students

COVID-19 and Research on Epidemic Preparedness

COVID-19 Data Open To All


It was as early as January 2020 when Vinod Scaria and his team at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) knew that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was weeks from hitting India. They had to understand the novel Coronavirus better and fast if diagnostics had to keep pace with the spread. But with the nationwide lockdown, their Delhi lab was shuttered. Of the team of 12, a handful were allowed to work from office. The rest had to manage from home with no infrastructure available to them.


Read more at https://www.mid-day.com/sunday-mid-day/article/covid-19-data-open-to-all-23153687

GENEPI is a collaborative programme to use high-throughput genomics approaches to understand the genetic makeup and genetic epidemiology of novel and emerging pathogens in India.

KAISER is a citizen science initiative relying on open science to be able to prepare, understand and respond to epidemics. 

This initiative also endeavours to build the much required skill base, resources, data and technologies to be able to help and cater to similar requirements nationally and globally.

Inviting volunteers to join us

Recent Publications

Complete list of Publications are available here


Govindaraj GM, Jain A, Edavazhippurath A, Bhoyar RC, Dhanasooraj D, Mishra A, Gupta V, Nair M, Shiny PM, Uppuluri R, Kumar A, Kashyap A, Ajith Kumar VT, Shankaran G, Senthivel V,Imran M, Divakar MK, Sawant S, Dalvi A, Madkaikar M, Raj R, Sivasubbu S, Scaria VClinical, immunological and genomic characteristics of children with X-linked agammaglobulinemia from Kerala, South IndiaHuman Immunology (2022) Accepted
Rophina M, Pandhare K, Jadhao S, Nagaraj SH, Scaria V. BGvar: A comprehensive resource for blood group immunogenetics. Transfus Med. 2021 Dec 13. doi: 10.1111/tme.12844. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34897852.
Jain A, Bhoyar RC, Pandhare K, Mishra A, Sharma D, Imran M, Senthivel V, Divakar MK, Rophina M, Jolly B, Batra A, Sharma S, Siwach S, Jadhao AG, Palande NV, Jha GN, Ashrafi N, Mishra PK, A K V, Jain S, Dash D, Kumar NS, Vanlallawma A, Sarma RJ, Chhakchhuak L, Kalyanaraman S, Mahadevan R, Kandasamy S, B M P, Rajagopal RE, Ramya J E, Devi P N, Bajaj A, Gupta V, Mathew S, Goswami S, Mangla M, Prakash S, Joshi K, Meyakumla, S S, Gajjar D, Soraisham R, Yadav R, Devi YS, Gupta A, Mukerji M, Ramalingam S, B K B, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S. Genetic epidemiology of autoinflammatory disease variants in Indian population from 1029 whole genomes. J Genet Eng Biotechnol. 2021 Dec 14;19(1):183. doi: 10.1186/s43141-021-00268-2. PMID: 34905135.
Shankar AJ, Jadhao S, Hoy W, McMorran B, Fotte S, Patel H, Scaria V, Nagaraj SH, Pharmacogenomic analysis of a genetically distinct Indigenous populationThe Pharmacogenomics Journal (Accepted 2021)
Rophina M, Pandhare K, Shamnath A, Imran M, Jolly B and Scaria VESC - a comprehensive resource for SARS-CoV-2 immune escape variants. Nucleic Acids Research (2021) Accepted
Gupta A; Bhoyar RC; Mirza S; Jolly B; Senthivel V; Shamnath A; Divakar MK; Imran M; Gupta V; Agrawal SJ; Mukhida S; Sivasubbu S; Scaria VSARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infection following a previous infection in a healthcare workerJournal of Infection (2021) Accepted
Sehgal P, Mathew S, Sivadas A, Ray A, Tanwar J, Vishwakarma S, Ranjan G, Shamsudheen KV, Bhoyar RC, Pateria A, Leonard E, Lalwani M, Vats A, Pappuru RR, Tyagi M, Jakati S, Sengupta S, B K B, Chakrabarti S, Kaur I, Motiani RK, Scaria V, Sivasubbu S. LncRNA VEAL2 regulates PRKCB2 to modulate endothelial permeability in diabetic retinopathy. EMBO J. 2021 Jun 28:e107134. doi: 10.15252/embj.2020107134.
Mittal G, Anu RI, Vatsyayan A, Pandhare K, Scaria VMUSTARD - a comprehensive resource of Mutation Specific Therapies in Cancer Database (Oxford) 2021 Accepted
Sahana S, Sivadas A, Mangla M,et al, Pharmacogenomic landscape of COVID-19 therapies from Indian population genomes. Pharmacogenomics. 2021 Jun 18. doi: 10.2217/pgs-2021-0028. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34142560.
Cotsapas C, Saarela J, Farmer JR, Scaria V, Abraham RS. Do monogenic inborn errors of immunity cause susceptibility to severe COVID-19? J Clin Invest. 2021 Jun 1:149459. doi: 10.1172/JCI149459 . 

Recent Preprints on COVID-19 Research


Rophina, M., Pandhare, K., Mangla, M., Shamnath, A., Jolly, B., Sethi, M., & Scaria, V. FaviCoV -a comprehensive manually curated resource for functional genetic variants in SARS-CoV-2.OSF Preprints (2020, November 17). https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/wp5tx  [Preprint]
Jolly B, Rophina M, Shamnath A, Imran M, Bhoyar RC, Divakar M, Rani PR, Ranjan G, Sehgal P,  Chandrasekhar P, Afsar S, Vijaya Lakshmi J, Surekha A, Sivasubbu S, Scaria VGenetic epidemiology of variants associated with immune escape from global SARS-CoV-2 genomesbioRxiv 2020.12.24.424332; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.24.424332 [Preprint]
Singh, U. B., Rophina, M., Chaudhry, R., Senthivel, V., Bala, K., Bhoyar, R. C.et alGenomic analysis of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections from a tertiary care centre in India. OSF Preprints (2021) https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fgd4x
Niyas, V. K. M., Shamnath, A., KJ, R., Bhoyar, R. C., N, V. A., Jolly, B. et al.Genomic analysis of early SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections from the state of Kerala suggest a preponderance of variants of concern.OSF Preprints https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/vn3xs 

Complete list of COVID-19 Publications are available at Publications page

Talks and Seminars

Archives on the YouTube GenomicsInIndia Channel


Forthcoming talks


Exome Sequence Analysis and Interpretation 

Handbook for Clinicians 

Vinod Scaria and Sridhar Sivasubbu

Buy on Amazon


The hitchhiker's guide to whole exome analysis

Shrey Gandhi, Vinod Scaria 

Buy on Pothy