Curriculum Vitae

Anzal KS

First name: Anzal, Last name: Kannamkulath Shahul Hameed

Name on publications: Anzal K Shahul

https://anzalks.in/

Phone: +91 7907112288
Email: anzal.ks@gmail.com

ORCID: 0009-0006-9932-7944

GitHub: anzalks

Research interests

Neural computation, Information encoding, Learning and behavior, Circuit neuroscience

Expertise
Lab techniques Programming and Designing Other tools
  • Whole cell patch clamp

  • Field recordings

  • Optogenetics

  • Mouse handling

  • Fly pushing

  • Stereotaxic surgery

  • Microscopy (DIC & 2-Photon)

  • Single board controller based acquisition setups

  • Molecular Biology techniques

  • Python (Intermediate)

  • Bonsai (Intermediate)

  • Blender (Beginner)

  • FreeCAD (Beginner)

  • MATLAB (Beginner)

  • Bash (Beginner)

  • Labview(Beginner)

  • Arduino IDE (Beginner)

  • Videography (Professional)

  • Cursor (Intermediate)

  • Notion(Intermediate)

  • Affinity designer (Beginner)

Current positions

Postdoctoral Researcher
Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives (INCI), CNRS in Strasbourg (research on information processing within the cerebellar nuclei under the guidance of Prof. Antoine Valera)

July-2025-
Neuroscience R&D Consultant and Generalist
Dognosis (Developing the multimodal hardware and ML platform for behaviour analytics and behaviour pattern inference for dog behaviour)
Apr 2025—

Education

Graduate student (PhD)
Thesis title : “Patterned synaptic input learning at mouse CA1 pyramidal neurons and characterization of CA1 pyramidal neurons for computational modeling.”
National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR), Bangalore, India
Supervisor: Prof. Upinder S Bhalla’s lab,

2018-25
BS-MS Dual degree
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER-TVM)
2012–17
Publications

A subset of mouse hippocampus CA1 pyramidal neurons learns sparse synaptic input patterns.

Anzal K. Shahul, Upinder S. Bhalla

bioRxiv 2024.12.05.626959; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.05.626959

Mechanisms and implications of high depolarization baseline offsets in conductance-based neuronal models.

Anal Kumar, Anzal K. Shahul, Upinder S. Bhalla

bioRxiv 2024.01.11.575308; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.11.575308

(accepted in JNeurophysiology)

Achievements, grants, and awards

The Sarojini Damodaran International Student Travel Fellowship

To visit Prof. Philippe Isope’s lab at the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience (INCI) - UPR 3212 CNRS. Strasbourg, France to develop SynaptiPy.

2024
DBT-CTEP Govt. of India, travel award 2024
Mightex travel award 2024
The Carl Storm International Diversity Fellowship (CSID) 2024
Mightex research excellence prize (Honourable Mentions) 2023
Science and Engineering Research Board Core Research Grant (SERB-CRG) Pattern learning in individual neurons. Submitted by Prof. Upinder S Bhalla. 2023
Infosys-NCBS Intramural Travel Grant 2022
CSIR-NET (LS) (Life science) 2017,2018
JGEEBILS 2017, 2018
GATE (Life science) 2017
DST INSPIRE SHE fellow 2012-17
Multimedia Presentation-1st Prize
State School IT Fest 2008-09, Kerala Govt
2009
Researcher roles
Research Associate
Prof. Upinder S Bhalla’s lab, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS-TIFR), Bangalore, India
Feb 2025- July 2025

Junior Research fellow

Dr. Shamik DasGupta’s lab (DBS, TIFR, Mumbai)

Jul 2017 - Jun 2018
Research Internships
NUS: Prof. Winkler’s lab (DBS) May-Jul 2016
NCBS: Prof. Sane’s lab May-Jul 2015
IISER-TVM: Dr. Varghese’s lab (SoB) Dec 2014
WWF project: Under Mr. Ajay Desai May-Jun 2014
IISER-TVM: Dr. Maruthachalam’s lab (SoB) Dec 2013
Teaching Experience
Tutor: Neuroscience Summer camp at NCBS for school children. May 2024
Teaching Assistant: CAMP (Computational Approaches to Memory and Plasticity) Jul - Aug 2022
Teaching Assistant: Basic neurobiology (@NCBS-TIFR)

Aug - Dec 2019

Summer Schools
Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS)

May-Jun 2022

Monsoon Workshop on Experimental Neuroscience (MonssonWEN )

Jul 2019

Conferences

Optogenetic Approaches to Understanding Neural Circuits and Behavior

Biological Insights Derived from Optogenetic Approaches (GRC), Lucca, Italy

Poster: Pattern learning in CA1 pyramidal cells of mouse hippocampus

2024

Neuroscience 2023 (SFN): Washington DC, USA

Poster: Pattern learning in CA1 pyramidal cells of mouse hippocampus

2023

No Garland Neuroscience: IISER Pune, India

Talk: How neurons learn patterns

2023

No Garland Neuroscience: IISER Pune, India

Attendee

2020

EMBO Conference on Bacterial Morphogenesis, Survival, and Virulence: Regulation in 4D: Poovar, Kerala, India.

Volunteer

2016

All India Cell Biology Conference: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Volunteer

2015
Workshops
Climate Change In Your Classroom: A Workshop For Teachers Of All Disciplines (by TROP ICSU) 2nd and 3rd May 2024
Images of Learning: Visualising Constructivist Principles
(
led by Dr. Vetti Giri from Azim Premji University)
1st to 2nd July 2024
Research projects
2020
Supervisors: Prof. U S Bhalla, Prof. Sanjay Sane
Institute: NCBS-TIFR, Duration: January 2020 to July 2020
Description: As a COVID-19 initiative, we investigated developing an Olfactory prescreening for asymptomatic COVID cases. The project was called off due to issues synthesizing the encapsulated odorants for making scratch and sniff test pamphlets.
2018
Supervisor: Dr. Shamik DasGupta
Institute: TIFR-Mumbai (Currently at University of Bristol), Duration: July 2017 to June 2018
Description: We identified potential neurons in the Ventral Nerve Cord (VNC) of adult D. melanogaster involved in path integration. We designed and developed behavior setups for different behavior assays. We also developed a Labview-based acquisition script for the data acquisition.
2017
Supervisor: Dr. Jishy Varghese
Institute: IISER Thiruvananthapuram, Duration: August 2016 to April 2017
Description: We predicted miRNAs responsible for aging and neuronal maintenance with the help of in-silico tools, behavior assays, and molecular biology techniques in D. melanogaster.
Created a database with miRNA targets in D.melanogaster for all the miRNAs conserved in bilaterally symmetric animals and manually curated all target sequences of bilaterally conserved miRNAs in D.melanogaster.
A Java-based interface was developed to access the manually curated Gene Ontology (GO) associated with each such genes.
Conducted behavior assays to assess aging. qPCR to account for different RNA levels.
2016
Supervisor: Dr. Alagiri Kaliyamoorty
Institute: IISER Thiruvananthapuram, Duration: January to April
Description: We synthesized diazabutadiene derivative of 2,4,6-trimethylaniline, 2,6- Diisopropylphenylamine,1,3-bis-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene.HCl (IMesHCl),1,3-bis-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-yli-dene.HCl(IPrHCl) was tested from commercially available reagents, and purity was tested using different spectroscopic measures, including NMR.
2016
Supervisor: Prof. Christoph Winkler
Institute: National University of Singapore, Singapore, Duration: May to July
Description: A screening was conducted to make Zebrafish lines of development mutants of SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) using CRISPR.
2015
Supervisor: Prof. Sanjay P Sane
Institute: NCBS-TIFR, India, Duration: May to July
Description: We tried to standardize an immuno-staining protocol for visualizing the synapses in the antennal lobe of hawkmoth (Daphnis nerium).
2014
Supervisor: Dr. Jishy Varghese
Institute: IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India, Duration: December
Description: Acquired core competencies on the Drosophila model system.
Leadership & Team Experience
Creative lead for the 6th National Postdoctoral Symposium
(Science & Society: Vision to Transition, Ashoka University, Sonipat)

Oct 2023

Neurobiology Journal Club Coordinator(NBJC), NCBS-TIFR, Weekly journal club Organized by the NCBS community for neurobiology enthusiasts.

2019-2020

President Anvesha, the science club of IISER-TVM, currently Science And Technology Council IISER TVM

2016-17

Team lead, Pedagogy development for “The Workshop” Onsite one-day outreach workshop for high school students across the state of Kerala by Anvesha, the science club of IISER-TVM.

2016

Secretary, Anvesha, the science club of IISER-TVM

2015-16

Core team member Anvesha 2015, science fest of IISER TVM during 2015 2015
Co-founding member, IISER-T Bikers Club Informal cycling group of IISER TVM

2014

Evaluator roles
Evaluator(Judge), KVS -Regional Children's Science Congress 2023-24
Evaluator(Judge), KVS- National Children's Science Congress 2022-23