Dr. Jayarama Reddy, Professor, St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru, India

Education is not just preparing for life; education is life itself. Being an educationist for more than three decades, my main objective in life has been developing novel methods and skills of teaching. Education should focus on developing physical, mental and spiritual facades of an individual. I constantly kept on experimenting, improving and redesigning my teaching methods; sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding. Soon after completing my Post Graduation in Botany from Mysore University, I joined St. Joseph’s College (Now called St. Joseph’s University) Bengaluru in 1990 and since then I am working in the same college as an Associate Professor. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to work with knowledgeable people like Late Rev. Fr. Cecil Saldanha, blessings of holy men, support of all my principals and a fostering environment at St. Joseph’s College. I am teaching botany, bioinformatics, and biostatistics at both UG and PG levels. Working as a teacher is not just a job for me. It’s a passion, it’s a pleasure, it’s desire and it’s a choice.  My maxim has been “Create, Motivate and Educate”. I have been involved in the creation of good educational content in order to motivate and educate the youth of the world. There are more than 450 educational videos on my channel.  In my experiments with education, St. Joseph’s College has been my laboratory and my students have been my subjects. Besides teaching I also had the opportunity to serve as an NCC officer of the 1-Karnataka Armoured Squadron from 1994 to 1996. I was also the President of St. Joseph’s Trekking and Adventure Club, Students Welfare Officer, President of Natural Science Association and Coordinator of Associations. Government of India appointed me as the member of Nehru Yuva Kendra. With a passion to discover more about the education system, I enrolled for a Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education in Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. I carried out my research at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) under Dr. Devinder Prakash and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru. I worked with Dr. C.S. Vaidyanathan at the Biochemistry department in IISc. My Ph. D degree on In Vitro Morphogenetic Studies on Orchids was awarded in 2002 by the Bangalore University. Eminent scholar and the former Registrar of Bangalore University, Dr. R. M. Ranganath was my guide. I collaborated with Wageningen University, the Netherlands through Centre for Life Technologies for research in Gene Cloning and Bioinformatics. I was responsible as the coordinator for starting St. Joseph’s Institute of Gene Technology in association with Wageningen University at St. Joseph’s College in 2002. Dr. Von Don Boss, the then President of Wageningen University had come to St. Joseph’s College for launching the joint programmes.  I have been recognised as a Ph. D guide by, Bangalore, Bangalore City, Bharathidasan, Bharathiar and MAHE Universities. I have so far successfully guided four Ph. D scholars. I am currently doing research on Plant tissue culture, Plant-based drugs and Bioinformatics. My quest for learning never ends. I completed a course on Schizophrenia from Wesleyan University, USA. I also studied Psychology from Yale University, USA in 2022. But my best teachers have been the nature and my students. Every day I have been learning something or other from them. There is no end or limit for learning in life. It is God who armed me with strength, kept my way secure and he made my way perfect.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; Honors & Awards

The first award of significance has been the gold medal that I received from Indira Gandhi National Open University for obtaining the first rank at all India level in PGDHE.  University Grants Commission (UGC) awarded the travel grant for attending the International Conference in Kuala Lumpur in the year 2015. I was also appointed as the Chairman at the International Conference on Biotechnology and Agricultural Engineering at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 2015.

I received “Eminent Scientist Award” and a Gold Medal from National Environmental Science Academy, Forest Research Institute and Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology on 21-12-2015 at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The award was presented by Sri. Surendra Singh Negi, Cabinet Minister for Science and Technology and Health, Government of Uttarakhand. The organising committee of the 5th International Conference on Civil, Architecture, Environment and Waste Management (CAEWM-17) invited me to give the Keynote address on 30^th March, 2017 in Singapore.

 Late Sri. Ananth Kumar, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertlizers and Prakash Javdekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development honoured and felicitated me on 1^st January 2016 for my contributions to the environmental research. In 2016, my parent institution, St. Joseph’s College, presented me the “Scroll of Honour” for scientific achievements. In February 2021, I received G.R. Patel “Dronacharya Award” for Academic Excellence from International Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and Gene Research Foundation.  In the same year I also got “J. Agarwal Gold Medal Award” from International Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. IRED, Institute of Research, Engineers and Doctors. Santa Barbara, California (CA 93105), USA has given me the life membership.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; YouTube Channel

During the period of Covid pandemic across the globe, the platform of teaching was suddenly shifted from the classroom to computers. Teaching changed from its offline mode to online mode. Like all, I too faced many challenges like, understanding the requirements of my students and communicating with them, creating the engaging educational content, staying up to date with ever-advancing technologies etc. This strange situation made me to learn the nitty gritty of creating the e-content and communicating to my students. As a result of this my YouTube channel, “Dr.  Jayarama Reddy” (www.youtube.com/drjayaramareddy) was created in 2020. Now I have more 450 educational videos on my channel. All these videos are completely made by myself. I have used various tools and apps for making my videos. Each of my videos is unique in some or the other way. I have used different methods, each time I made a video. All my lectures, guest talks, conferences & events organised by me after 2020 are available in the form of videos.  One can learn the various techniques of making videos by just watching the contents. But mainly, I worked with Adobe Premiere-Pro, Filmora-12, Clip Champ and Open Shot. At least a thousand people watch my videos daily. I am quite content and satisfied with this endeavour of mine, as my classroom is open all the time and at any given point of time someone or the other is learning from me.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; Work experience

Most of my life I spent teaching in St. Joseph’s College. This is 33^rd year of my profession. I am teaching botany, bioinformatics, and biostatistics at both UG and PG levels. Working as a teacher, for me is not a job. It’s a passion, it’s a pleasure, it’s a desire and it’s a choice. I had wonderful prospect of doing research along with many eminent scientists. I also obtained able guidance from the stalwarts of science.  As a teacher I got an opportunity to interact with a wide range of students from across the nation coming from different cultural, financial and religious backgrounds. I also had the chance to understand the difficulties and struggles of my students. St. Joseph’s college and my colleagues in the Department of Botany always provided me the support for conducting seminars, workshops, National & International conferences in the campus. Which aided me in organising more than 100 events during all these years of my service. I have learnt many lessons of life from my colleagues and students. Teaching for me has been quite rewarding and gratifying.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; Books published

It was my dream to publish a book from my student days. I got the invitation to write a book from I. K. International Publishers in 2006. My first book, “Biotechnology of Orchids” was published in 2008. My second book, a Monograph on Tribulus terrestris was funded by the University Grants Commission and it was also released in 2008. So far, I have published 11 books. The book close to my heart has been “Better Earth is Possible” Published by Principal, St. Joseph’s College. I wrote this book along with a very famous Chinese scientist, Dr. Ming-Hung Wong.

Areas of interest

Besides teaching, I am also involved in scientific research, writing article, creating educational content, making videos, drawing and sketching. I could not give much time to drawing and sketching in my life. But it is always there in the back of my mind.

Secrets of Success by Dr. Jayarama Reddy

There is no shortcut to success. There is only one way to success and that is hard work. Dedication and focus are also important. I do not believe in beating around the bush. One has to have goal, ambition, aim and clear dreams. One should focus on a particular goal and it has to be crystal clear. I would like to mention the classical example of Arjuna of Mahabharata. Once the goal is clear then the next step is to aim and march towards it with dedication. One should not fully rely on others but they should believe in themselves. One should always think and work hard to achieve the goals. Because, “you are what your thoughts are”. Do not stagger from compromise to compromise. Do not relax, till your goal is achieved. If you dream big you will achieve lots. The other two important things are planning and time management. Unless there is a perfect plan, the mission will be unaccomplished. Time will not wait for anybody. One should sync the system of working with real time. Finally, the most imperative skill is having faith and patience. There should not be any limit for patience, if you are setting limit for patience, then that is surely impatience. It may take time, but you will surely succeed. Nobody can prevent you from getting the rewards that you deserve. Whatever work that we do and services that we render will surely bear fruits one day or the other. All our thoughts, actions and feelings, no matter how subconscious, generate a force that will return back to us.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy research; Discoveries & developments

Dr. Fateh Ali (Brother of Dr. Salim Ali) was my first inspiration to do research. He entrusted the task of rejuvenating MEG (Madras Engineering group) Lake near Ulsoor lake in Bengaluru to me and my colleague, Dr. Nayeem Ullah Khan. Later he asked us to study Kokkare Bellur bird sanctuary. I joined Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru as a research fellow in 1992. I worked with Dr. C.S. Vaidyanathan at the Biochemistry department in IISc on an enzyme, Phenyl Alanine Amino Lyase (PAL). For my Ph. D, I joined Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) in 1994. I worked under Dr. Devinder Prakash, Chairman of Orchid laboratory. I developed several protocols for the in vitro propagation of orchids. In 1998, the UGC awarded a research project entitled “Monographical and Pharmacological studies on Tribulus terrestris”. I extracted the pharmacological substances from Tribulus terrestris and studied their properties. Later in 2000, UGC awarded the second research project to me entitled “Pharmacological studies on the plants used in the management of the skin disease, Vitiligo”. I developed and suggested the plant-based drug formulation to treat Vitiligo to the Government of India. In 2013, I completed my third project “Effect of environmental stresses on the growth development and lifespan of butterflies” funded by the department of Science Technology. Christ University of Bengaluru granted me a Major research project to work on developing plant-based drugs against cancer from Nothapodytes foetida. I worked with Dr. Praveen and Dr. Jobi Xavier and completed this project. My fifth major research project was also funded by Christ University to work on Solid waste management. I completed this project along with Dr. Johny Joseph of Christ University and Dr. Hoysal Chalukya of IISc. The other area of my research has been bioinformatics. I and my team worked on the cancer related protein, Magee1 (melanoma antigen family E, 1) and submitted its structure to the Protein Data Bank and obtained Protein ID 2H5T. I also developed bioinformatics tools and techniques for making oral insulin in silico. I got two Indian patents on novel environmental techniques (Patent No. 144/CHE/2013; Patent No. 145/CHE/2013). So far, I have so far published 98 research papers in National and International Journal.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; The mentor & the guide

The main area of research is in Plant Tissue Culture. Dr. A. K. Bopaiah, Former Professor and Head of the Department of Botany at St. Joseph’s College taught me all the techniques of plant Tissue Culture. I am working in this area for the last 25 years. I have trained and guided hundreds of students in Plant tissue culture. Each year at least 15 post graduate students study the techniques with me in the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory at St. Joseph’s Research Centre. Every year my students complete 5 to 6 plant tissue culture research projects under my guidance. Similarly, I have also trained and guided about 30 post graduate students in the area of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics each year. Every year my students complete 8 to 10 projects in bioinformatics. Besides this, I am also guiding 5 to 6 graduate students under Term project scheme each year. I have also been a scientific advisor to GeneClat Technologies Pvt Ltd and Ecogenetech Pvt Ltd.

Dr. Jayarama Reddy; About entrepreneurship in Biotechnology

Biotechnology has been globally accepted as one of the important tools for direct application in industrial, pharmaceutical, agricultural, horticultural and medical biology. It has a strong and positive influence on the industrial, agricultural medical sector worldwide. Agricultural biotechnology includes plant tissue culture (PTC), applied microbiology, and applied molecular biology contributing to the production of secondary metabolites, plant-based drugs, crops with improved food, feed, fiber and fuel. The technique of PTC is well translated from ‘concept’ to ‘commercialization’. Through PTC large number of true to the type plants could be propagated within a short time and space and that too throughout the year. For example, it may be possible to propagate 2-4 lakh of Tissue Cultured Plants (TCP) from a single rose plant against 10 to 15 plants by vegetative means. As an industry, PTC is no more a nascent industry in India. It is flourishing with multi-directional growth and multi-million dollar turn over. Several plants like, anthuriums, bananas, strawberries, sugarcane, orchids, teak, sandalwood etc. are routinely propagated by tissue culture technique and are being traded domestically and internationally for nearly three decades. PTC at present is a highly prosperous and promising industry with tremendous scope for improvement. It is also used for the production of drugs and biochemicals of medical importance besides perfumes and flavouring agents in vitro. Similarly, bioinformatics has also become indispensable to biotechnology and medical biology. Understanding the genetic and molecular basis of life mechanisms has become unbelievable simple and easy by using tools of bioinformatics. For example, gene sequencing was costing billions of dollars a few decades ago but now it costs only a few thousand dollars. Biotechnology in combination with bioinformatics has been responsible for the developing mind-blowing tools and devices that are being used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Gene Editing tool, CRISPR is the best example, but the list of achievements in biotechnology is unending.

Contact Details

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