Overview

Dr. Ajitha Pillai has a distinguished career as a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, spanning 20 years. Her medical career started with MBBS from Medical College of Alappuzha, Kerala in the year 1990, followed by Post Graduation MD (Microbiology) from Medical College of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in the year 1999. She has an additional six years of research training and experience in molecular biology with several publications at the Laboratory of developmental immunology in Japan. She is skilled in all basic and advanced clinical microbiological and molecular biology techniques. 

Education & Qualifications

• M.B.B.S - T D Medical College, Kerela 
• M.D (Microbiology) - Medical College, Trivandrum 
• Postdoctoral fellow in Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (N    IAS), Tsukuba, Japan 

Experience

• Head of the Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Biology Division in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Sagar Hospital, Bangalore 
• Infection Control Officer and Secretary, Hospital Infection Control Committee, Sagar Hospital, Bengaluru 
   

Research & Publications

• Fellowship enabled by BRAIN (Funding agency, Tokyo, Japan)
• Science and Technology Agency (STA) Fellowship, Japan
• NIAS Fellowship, Japan
• Fellowship for post graduates studies in Microbiology, University of Kerala
• Ajitha Pillai, Satoshi Ueno, Hong Zhang, and Yusuke Kato (2003) Induction of ASABF – type antimicrobial peptides by bacterial injection: noval member of ASABF in the ascaris suum Biochem J. 2003 May 1; 371(Pt 3): 663-8. PMID: 12617723(PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE)
• Ajitha Pillai, Satoshi Ueno, Hong Zhang, Jae Min Lee, and Yusuke Kato (2005) Cecropin P1 and novel nematode cecropins : bacteria – inducible antimicrobial peptide family in the nematode Ascaris suum, Biochem J. 2005 Aig 15; 390(Pt 1) 207-14. PMID: 15850460
   

Specializations

• Clinical Microbiology 
• Immunology
• Molecular Biology
• Hospital Infection Control