Krishnaja AP, 2023-05-11

Born in Calicut, Kerala, in 1951, Krishnaja AP did her BSc in Zoology (with chemistry & botany subsidiaries) at Malabar Christian College, Calicut. She worked as a telegraphist in Calicut for almost two years before resuming her academic journey. She pursued an MSc in Zoology by research at the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai. After a stint studying drosophila mutagenicity at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, she earned a PhD from the Institute of Science in 1980. She worked at the Genetic Clinic & Pediatric Research Laboratory at KEM Hospital before joining the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s biomedical group, where she worked from 1982 to 2008. She was part of several landmark research projects at BARC such as a cytogenetic monitoring programme on human newborns carried out from 1983-1987 to find out the incidence of constitutional chromosome anomalies, as well as the international collaboration HUman MicroNucleus Project. She also conducted an in vitro cytogenetic study in human lymphocytes exposed to quinacrine dihydrochloride (QDCL has been used as a crude chemosterilant in developing countries in recent years). This work was presented in the 13th International Chromosome Conference in Italy in 1998. Her areas of expertise range from human cytogenetics, genetic toxicology and heavy metal toxicity to environmental mutagenesis and fish cytogenetics, fluorescence in-situ hybridization, cell culture, cell lines culture, chromosome preparation and chromosome banding, molecular cytogenetics and germ cell genetics.