I am a Medical Microbiologist (M.Sc.), Bioinformatician, and Published Clinical Researcher currently serving as a Tutor in the Department of Microbiology at MGM Medical College & Institute of Health Sciences, Vashi, Navi Mumbai. My research and engineering focus on Infectious Disease, Immunology, Cell Biology, and Multi-Omics Machine Learning Workflows.

By combining over 5 years of hands-on clinical diagnostic and academic experience (spanning Bacteriology, Parasitology, Mycology, Serology, TB, and Molecular Diagnostics) with modern computational biology, I bridge wet-lab clinical evidence and systematic literature synthesis with reproducible dry-lab automation.

My work spans first-author peer-reviewed clinical research on Antimicrobial Resistance (VRE) and PROSPERO-registered systematic reviews on opportunistic protozoan pathogens (Pentatrichomonas hominis), alongside end-to-end bioinformatics pipelines for whole-genome $k$-mer AMR phenotype prediction, Compositional Data Analysis (CoDa) in gut dysbiosis, scRNA-seq intercellular signaling, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) for protein-protein interactions.

• 📄 First-Author Journal Publication (2024)
  R. Shah, D. N. (2024). "Detection of vancomycin resistant enterococci in patients suffering from urinary tract infection in tertiary care hospital." International Journal of Life Sciences Biotechnology and Pharma Research, Vol. 13.
  Clinical focus: Surveillance, phenotypic characterization, and antibiotic susceptibility profiling of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE) among tertiary-care UTI cohorts.

• 📋 Completed Systematic Review & Registered Protocol (2026 — Submitted for Publication)
  Ritu Shah (Guarantor & First Author, ORCID: 0009-0000-1680-5653), Dr. Ravishekhar Karnam. "Pentatrichomonas hominis: A Potential Opportunistic Pathogen in Immunocompromised Hosts: A Systematic Review." NIHR PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, Registration ID: CRD420261422321.
  Scope & Methodology: Comprehensive multi-database synthesis (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect; 2000–2026) evaluating the prevalence, molecular/microscopic detection, and gastrointestinal symptomatology of P. hominis across immunocompromised cohorts (HIV/AIDS, oncology/chemotherapy, organ/bone marrow transplant, TB, and long-term steroid/antibiotic recipients). [View Published Search Strategy PDF]

Languages, Workflows & Infrastructure

Machine Learning & Data Science

Bioinformatics & Clinical Research Domains

• 🦠 phominis-multiomics-pipeline — Opportunistic Pathogen Surveillance
  End-to-end multi-omics pipeline for detecting and characterizing Pentatrichomonas hominis as a potential opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised gut microbiomes—featuring custom genome/marker databases and automated profiling workflows complementing PROSPERO CRD420261422321.
• 🧬 protozoa-bacterial-ibd-dysbiosis — Quantitative Metagenomics & Nextflow DSL2
  Reproducible metagenomic workflow modeling intestinal protozoa–bacterial interactions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) dysbiosis using Compositional Data Analysis (CoDa) and leakage-free machine learning.
• 💊 amr-kmer-pipeline — Computational Antimicrobial Resistance
  Proof-of-concept (POC) machine learning pipeline for predicting Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) phenotypes directly from bacterial whole-genome $k$-mer representations using Python, PyTorch, and Docker, building on clinical AMR surveillance research.
• 🩸 Gfi1_AML_Signaling_Mapping — Cancer Transcriptomics & Single-Cell Omics
  Computational pipeline mapping Gfi1-regulated intercellular signaling and bone marrow niche remodeling in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) by integrating bulk TCGA cohorts with scRNA-seq (GSE116256) datasets.
• 🕸️ HippoActInteract — Deep Learning in Structural & Systems Biology
  Graph Neural Network (GNN) architecture designed to predict and categorize physical protein-protein interactions between Hippo signaling and actin cytoskeleton pathway proteins.

Professional Experience

• Tutor — Department of Microbiology | MGM Medical College & Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai (Aug 2023 – Present)
  Leading MBBS practicals, small group teachings (SGT), paramedical lectures, clinical research supervision, and diagnostic laboratory workflows across Bacteriology, Parasitology, Mycology, and Serology.
• Junior Microbiologist | HLL Lifecare Limited (HindLab), Navi Mumbai (Oct 2022 – Aug 2023)
  Conducted infectious disease diagnostics, Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AST), serological assays, NABL quality assurance, and automated instrumentation management (BacT/ALERT, Roche cobas c 311).
• Medical Microbiologist (M.Sc. Resident) | MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai (Aug 2019 – Jul 2021)
  Completed comprehensive diagnostic rotations across Phlebotomy, Media Preparation, Bacteriology, Parasitology, Mycology, Serology, TB, and Molecular Diagnostics.

Education

• M.Sc. in Medical Microbiology (First Division) — MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai (2018 – 2021)
  Thesis Research (Published 2024): "Detection of vancomycin resistant enterococci in patients suffering from urinary tract infection in tertiary care hospital."
• B.Sc. in Microbiology (First Division) — Tribhuvan University (2013 – 2017)

Licenses, Registries & Certifications

• Registered Medical Microbiologist — Nepal Health Professional Council (NHPC) | Credential ID: 164 Med.Micro (Valid 2023 – 2028)
• ORCID Researcher Identifier — 0009-0000-1680-5653
• PROSPERO Systematic Review Guarantor — Registration CRD420261422321 (2026)
• Basic Course in Biomedical Research (BCBR) — MGM Institute of Health Sciences (DEC24BCBRS1051810245)
• Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Workshop — MGM Institute of Health Sciences (Issued Mar 2025)