Dr. Swagatika Sahoo





Name: Dr. Swagatika Sahoo
Qualification: Ph.D
Designation: DST-INSPIRE Faculty
Department: Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering (IBSE)
Institute name: Indian Institute of Technology Madras
College address: Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, Tamil Nadu, India
Award for: Young Achiever Award
Publication title: Journal
Paper Title: Personalized whole?body models integrate metabolism, physiology, and the gut microbiome
Journal Name: Molecular systems biology
Volume: 16
Issue No.: 5
Month of publication: May
Year: 2020
Page no.: e8982
ISSN: 1744-4292


About Dr. Swagatika Sahoo

I am a Systems Biologist, and currently DST-INSPIRE Faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering (IBSE), Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. My career ambition is to develop novel diagnostics (i.e., biofluid metabolite biomarkers that are readily identifiable) and low-cost therapeutics for metabolic disorders and cancers, which are rampant within the Indian population. I have strong expertise in biological network reconstruction and constraint-based computational modeling of multiorgan metabolic models and a track record of productive work in an interdisciplinary environment. Focused areas of my research include, multi-scale disease modeling and clinical big data analysis for (i) identifying therapeutic targets, (ii) predicting the effect of drugs and gut microbes on human health, and (iii) development of hybrid modeling techniques to capture disease-specific attributes. I completed my Ph.D. from University of Iceland and have >10 years of experience in teaching and conducting research in the field of Systems Biology. I have >1500 citations for my published research articles with an h-index of 9. Towards this end, my work on Retinoblastoma (i.e., cancer of the retina) was mentioned in the leading national newspaper ‘The Hindu’ (https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/iit-madras-identifies-unique-pathways-of-eyecancer/article26224745.ece). Mentioned are few of my published research articles. 1. Thiele, I et al. Personalized whole?body models integrate metabolism, physiology, and the gut microbiome. Molecular Systems Biology. 2020; 16(5) e8982. (IF: 8.991) 2. Sundararaghavan, A et al. Mechanism of the oxidative stress?mediated increase in lipid accumulation by the bacterium, R. opacus PD630: Experimental analysis and genome? scale metabolic modeling. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 2020; 117(6) 1779- 1788. (IF: 4.06) 3. Sahoo S, et al, Metabolite systems profiling identifies exploitable weaknesses in retinoblastoma. FEBS Letters. 2019; 593(1) 23-41. (IF: 2.99) 4. Noronha A, et al. The Virtual Metabolic Human database: integrating human and gut microbiome metabolism with nutrition and disease. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018; 47(D1) D614-D624. (IF: 11.56, Citation: 12) 5. Brunk E, et al. Recon3D enables a three-dimensional view of gene variation in human metabolism. Nat Biotechnol. 2018; 36(3):272-281. (IF: 35.724, Citation: 61) 6. Sahoo S, et al. Modeling the effects of commonly used drugs on human metabolism. FEBS Journal. 2015; 2:297-317. (IF: 4.530, Citation: 24) 7. Sahoo S and Thiele, I. Computational modelling of inborn errors of metabolism, Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease, 2014, Volume 37, Issue 1 Supplement, pp 1- 26. 8. Sahoo S, et al. Membrane transporters in a human genome-scale metabolic knowledgebase and their implications for disease. Front Physiol. 2014; 5:91. (IF: 3.39, Citation: 44) 9. Sahoo S, & Thiele I. Predicting the impact of diet and enzymopathies on human small intestinal epithelial cells. Hum Mol Genet. 2013; 22:2705-22. (IF: 4.9, Citation: 47) 10. Thiele I, et al. A community-driven global reconstruction of human metabolism. Nat Biotechnol. 2013; 31:419-25. (IF: 35.724, Citation: 779) 11. Heinken A, et al. Systems-level characterization of a host-microbe metabolic symbiosis in the mammalian gut. Gut Microbes. 2013; 4:28-40. (Citation: 147) 12. Sahoo S, et al. A compendium of inborn errors of metabolism mapped onto the human metabolic network. Mol Biosyst. 2012; 8:2545-58. (Citation: 63)