PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Meiyappan Lakshmanan

Meiyappan Lakshmanan is an IIT Madras researcher whose computational biology work connects cellular metabolism with bioprocess analytics. He coauthored a model of rice metabolism under flooding and drought in 2013 and a genome-scale model of Chinese hamster ovary cells in 2016. He earned a PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering at NUS in 2014 and worked as a Staff Scientist at A*STAR's Bioprocessing Technology Institute. In 2025, he served as Faculty Advisor and Primary Investigator for IIT Madras's iGEM team and guided fellows developing cultivated-meat goat cell lines. As of October 2026, he is an assistant professor in IIT Madras's Department of Biotechnology and affiliate faculty at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Timeline

  1. 2013

    Modeling rice metabolism

    He coauthors a 2013 paper that reconstructs a metabolic and regulatory network for rice, with models for germinating seeds and photorespiring leaves. Its simulations identify mitochondrial respiration as essential during drought stress.

  2. 2014

    A PhD and A*STAR role

    He earns a PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from NUS in 2014. He works as a Staff Scientist at A*STAR's Bioprocessing Technology Institute. His computational methods analyze mammalian cell metabolism to enhance bioprocessing.

  3. 2016

    A genome-scale CHO model

    He coauthors the 2016 community reconstruction of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell metabolism. The model connects more than 1,700 genes to cell growth, metabolic pathways and protein production.

  4. 2025

    Faculty advisor for IIT Madras iGEM

    He serves as Faculty Advisor and Primary Investigator for the IIT Madras iGEM team in 2025.

  5. 2025

    Goat cell lines for cultivated meat

    In 2025, two research fellows work under his expert guidance alongside Dr. Greeshma Thrivikraman at IITM on indigenous immortalised goat muscle satellite cell lines for cultivated meat.

  6. December 2025

    CARE Conference poster award

    In December 2025, the goat-cell research is presented in the CARE Conference 2025 poster competition at IIT Madras and wins the Best Poster – People’s Choice Award.

  7. As of October 2026

    Assistant professor at IIT Madras

    As of October 2026, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at IIT Madras and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. His research includes bioprocess data analytics and data-driven and model-driven development for biopharmaceuticals and cultivated meat.

Career

  1. Since 2025IIT MadrasFaculty Advisor and Primary Investigator
  2. Agency for Science, Technology and ResearchStaff Scientist

Education

  1. 2014National University of SingaporePhD

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes IIT Madras. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes IIT Madras. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Meiyappan Lakshmanan yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Elucidating Rice Cell Metabolism under Flooding and Drought Stresses Using Flux-Based Modeling and Analysis pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Meiyappan Lakshmanan | Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence wsai.iitm.ac.in. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. A Consensus Genome-scale Reconstruction of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) Cell Metabolism pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. GFI India’s Smart Protein Advanced Research & Knowledge (SPARK) Fellowship programme gfi-india.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Team Members | EPIC 2025.igem.wiki. Checked 21 October 2026.