Dr. Nishu Goyal  

Dr. Nishu Goyal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences and Technology, UPES, Dehradun. Following a B.Tech in Biotechnology from Indraprastha University, Nishu earned her M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering from IIT Bombay and a Ph.D. in Systems Biology from NUS Singapore. Before joining PhD, she gained valuable work experience in Strand Life Sciences Pvt Ltd., a leading bioinformatics company in Bangalore, India. She was awarded the highly prestigious President Graduate Fellowship for her doctoral studies at NUS and honored with the Springer Thesis award for outstanding doctoral work. Given the global issue of increasing CO2 emissions and a need for sustainable energy, she decided to focus on the possibility of converting carbon dioxide into a cleaner energy fuel, such as methane, via biochemical pathways. To this end, she conducted an exhaustive search and identified the potential of M. maripaludis to convert CO2 to methane. Presently, her research group focuses on developing genome-scale metabolic models of microorganisms and applying them for bioremediation and clinical benefits, such as optimizing pesticide degradation pathways in soil microorganisms and identification/enhancement of antitumor agents secreted by bacteria, respectively.

• Associate Professor (May 2023 onwards), University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India
• Assistant Professor – Selection Grade (July 2017-April 2023), University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India
• Research Engineer (Jan 2016-Jan 2017), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore
• Graduate Research Scholar (2011-2015), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore
• Scientist-II (2010-2011), Strand Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India

• Metabolic Model reconstruction, phenotype prediction and analysis
• Novel microbial strain development and optimization for environmental remediation
• Biofuels and bioenergy
• Bacteria mediated disease treatment

For teaching, I am dedicated to share my knowledge / expertise with students, create collaborative interdisciplinary environment, guiding them on research projects, and making them self-reliant for the betterment of society. As a faculty at UPES, I interacted with many students and encouraged them to higher studies, guided them on research projects, taught/graded various subjects, and demonstrated lab experiments. I realized that students learn better if we use a learner-centredness approach. Class discussion, peer interaction, timely feedback, and updated curriculum and teaching methods are necessary. Assignments and presentations are great teaching ways to inculcate team spirit and togetherness among the students. Project-based learning and activities based on syllabus boost student aptitude, problem-solving skills, and time management and is more effective than teaching from a textbook.

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Introduction to Biotechnology, Fermentation Technology, Food Microbiology, Biology for Engineers, Engineering Chemistry

• Springer Thesis Award – The "best of the best" thesis award for outstanding Ph.D. research
• President’s Graduate Fellowship award for pursuing Ph.D. at National University of Singapore
• HRD Scholarship by Government of India for pursuing M.Tech at IIT Bombay
• All India Rank 4 (99.96 percentile) in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE)
• Qualified CSIR- National Eligibility Test - A National Eligibility Test for Lectureship in Indian Institutions
• Secured research funds- SEED 2022, SEED 2021, Research Initiative for Science and Engineering (RISE), Rapid Research and Innovation Challenge (RRIC)

Publications:

C. H. Vo, N. Goyal, M. Kraft & I. A. Karimi (2023). Carbon conversion by Methanococcus maripaludis S2 under diazotrophic and a revised genome-scale metabolic model. Chemical Engineering Science, 118910. (IF 4.88)

A.K. Sharma, P. Ghodke, N. Goyal, S. Nethaji & W. H. Chen (2022). Machine learning technology in biohydrogen production from agriculture waste: Recent advances and future perspectives. Bioresource Technology (2022), 128076. (IF: 11.9)

N. Goyal, A. Nawaz, K. S. Chandel, D. Devnarayan, L. Gupta, S. Singh & A. K. Sharma (2022). A cohesive effort to assess the suitability and disparity of carbon nanotubes for water treatment. Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2022), 1-22. (IF: 5.19)

N. Goyal*, F. Jerold. “Biocosmetics: Technological Advances and Future Outlook”. Environment Science and Pollution Research (2021) (IF: 5.19)

C.H. Vo, N. Goyal, I. A. Karimi, and M. Kraft. “First observation of an acetate switch in a methanogenic autotroph (Methanococcus maripaludis S2)” Microbiology Insights (2020). Vol.13

N. Goyal, Z. Zhi, and I A Karimi. “Metabolic processes of M. Maripaludis and potential applications” Microbial Cell Factories (2016), Vol. 15, 107 (IF: 5.14)

N. Goyal, Z. Zhi, and I A Karimi. “Flux measurements and maintenance energy for CO2 Utilization by M. maripaludis”. Microbial Cell Factories (2015), Vol. 14, 146 (IF: 5.14) • N. Goyal, I A Karimi, and Z. Zhi. “Genome-scale metabolic model of M. Maripaludis S2 for CO2 capture and conversion to methane”. Molecular BioSystems (2014), Vol.10, 1043-1054 (IF: 4.21)

N. Goyal, J. Sharma, A. Singh, J. K. Pallavi, H. Sonah, K.V. Prabhu, and P. Gupta. “Assessment of genetic relationships among bread wheat genotypes using microsatellite markers." International Journal of Applied Agricultural Research (2010) Vol.5 No.5, 575-582 International / National Conferences:

Invited talk on “Metabolic network analysis to study biodegradation pathways in Nitrosomonas europaea” during the 3rd International Conference on Bioprocess for Sustainable Environment and Energy (ICBSEE)-2022 held at National Institute of Technology Rourkela, June 20- 24, 2022

Oral presentation entitled “Carbon nanotubes – A worthy adsorbent in treating wastewater?”, 2 nd International Conference on Chemical, Bio, and Environmental engineering (CHEMBIOEN2021), India, August 20-22, 2021

Poster Presentation entitled “Influence of nitrogen limitation on methanogenesis and growth in M. Maripaludis”, International Conference on CO2 Utilization (ICCDU), Singapore, July 5, 2015

Oral highlights plus poster presentation entitled “Experimental validation of in silico flux predictions from a genome-scale model (iMM518) for CO2 utilization by M. Mariplaudis”, 12th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering (PSE) and 25th European Symposium on Computer-Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE), Copenhagen, Denmark, May 31, 2015

Oral presentation entitled “Genome-based Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA) of M. Maripaludis for improved methane productivity”, AIChE Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA, USA, Nov 16, 2014

Oral presentation entitled “Genome-scale metabolic network reconstruction and in silico analysis of M. Maripaludis S2”. 23rd European Symposium on Computer-Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE), Lappeenranta, Finland, June 9, 2013 Book Published:

Goyal, Nishu. In silico Modeling and Experimental Validation for Improving Methanogenesis from CO2 via M. Maripaludi

nishu.goyal@ddn.upes.ac.in