Complete Academic CV
Go to Technical Resume instead
Education
Ph.D. in Quantitative Biology
University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 2020 – 2025
M.S. in Biology
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 2019 – 2020
B.S. (Research) in Biology
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 2015 – 2019
Research Experience
PhD Candidate – University of Lausanne
Aug 2020 – Present
Ecology and evolution of the honeybee gut microbiome
Master’s Thesis Research – Indian Institute of Science
May 2019 – May 2020
Human gut microbiome analysis using Nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing
Undergraduate Thesis Research – Indian Institute of Science
Aug 2018 – Jul 2019
Metaproteomic analysis of gut microbiomes from fecal samples
Summer Research Project – inStem, Bengaluru
May 2017 – Jul 2017
Cloning and expression of native cockroach milk protein in yeast
iGEM Undergraduate Research – Indian Institute of Science
May 2016 – Oct 2016
Project Cellfiefuge: Auto-inducing and auto-aggregating bacteria
Publications
Mazel, F., Prasad, A., & Engel, P. (2025). Host specificity of gut microbiota associated with social bees. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, e00080-23. DOI
Somerville, V., Prasad, A., et al. (2025). Strain-level and phenotypic stability contrasts with plasmid and phage variability in water kefir. bioRxiv, In Review
Prasad, A., Pallujam A. D., et al. (2024). Symbiont loss and gain, rather than co-diversification, shapes honeybee gut microbiota. bioRxiv, In Review
Baud, G. L., Prasad, A., et al. (2023). Turnover of strain-level diversity modulates functional traits in the honeybee gut. Genome Biology, DOI
Sarton-Lohéac, G., …, Prasad, A., et al. (2023). Deep divergence of gut symbionts in stingless bees. mBio, DOI
Beal, J., Dwijayanti, A., … with the iGEM Interlab Study Contributors (incl. Prasad, A.) (2018). Quantification of bacterial fluorescence using calibrants. PLOS One, DOI
Fellowships and Awards
FBM PhD Fellowship, University of Lausanne
2020 – 2023
Mathilde Agassiz Scholarship
2020 – 2021 — CHF 70,000 award
KVPY Fellowship
2015 – 2020 — All-India Rank: 335
iGEM Bronze Medal
2016 — Co-founded IISc’s first iGEM team; secured 3 research and travel grants
Invited Talks
The Local Pangenome
Oct 2023 – Alicante, Spain
Talk: Variation and specialization of gut microbial community structure and function
Academic Seminar Series
Apr 2023 – Monash University Malaysia
Talk: Evolutionary and functional insight into honeybee gut microbiota
Conferences
Microbiome Virtual International Forum
Nov 2024 – Online
Best Selected Talk: Evolution and Functional Potential of Honeybee Gut Microbiota
Gordon Research Conference – Animal Microbe Symbiosis
Jun 2023 – Lucca, Italy
Poster presentation
CSHL Meeting: Microbiome
Oct 2023 – Cold Spring Harbor, USA
Poster presentation
SymbNET PhD Summer School
Jul 2022 – Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal
Poster presentation
Teaching
Teaching Assistant – SAGE (Sequence A Genome)
2021 – 2024
Masters-level bioinformatics course
Professional Activities
Peer Reviewer
2023 – Present
Journals: Ecological Monographs, Insect Molecular BiologyWorkshop Evaluation Committee
Jan 2023 – Basel Computational Biology Conference (BC2)Local Volunteer
Aug 2022 – ISME-18 ConferenceOrganizing Committee
Sep 2023 – DMF Science RetreatFaculty Hiring Committee Representative
May 2023 – Department of Microbiology (DMF), PhD/Postdoc rep
Extracurricular Activities
Open Science Meeting
Nov 2023 – NCCR Microbiomes, Switzerland
Decolonizing North–South Research Collaboration Workshop
Aug 2022 – University of Bern
Contributed to discussions on equitable partnerships in global research
iGEM India BioSummit
Jul 2020 – Moderator for panel on Health & Data Privacy
UN Convention on Biological Diversity
Nov 2018 – Delegate, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
Advocated for youth inclusion in science diplomacy and gene-tech policy