Dr. Biju Bhargavan was born on 10th of May 1980, in East Kallada, Kollam (District), Kerala, India. He grew up in a small village called East Kallada, Kerala where he also attended his school from primary to high school levels. After completing his high school, in 1995, he moved to urban area of Kollam to attend college education from Fatima Mata National College. There he attended Pree-degree in biological sciences and Bachelor of science (B.Sc) in Zoology. In 2000, he relocated to Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala to join for master degree in General and Applied Zoology at Department of Zoology, Karyavattom Campus. In August 2002, he completed his Master of Science (M.Sc) degree and simultaneously qualified the Kerala University entrance exam for PhD program. In 2003 he joined Department of Zoology at Karyavattom Campus as Junior Research Fellow. In the same year he qualified for CSIR-JRF-NET exam conducted nationally by Council of Science and Industrial Research. With this fellowship, in August 2004, he moved to Lucknow, India to obtain his Ph.D degree from Central Drug Research Institute. The institute mandate was to identify potential drug molecules from natural/synthetic resources for various ailments. Dr. Biju Bhargavan was focusing on natural resources to discover bone anabolic agents to treat the bone related disorders. He discovered the stem bark of Indian Medicinal plant, Butea monosperma contain a pterocarpan called Medicarpin posses osteogenic potential. Apart from this Dr. Bhargavan also identified few more isoflavonoids with osteogenic properties. In 2009 he submitted his PhD thesis and Dr. B.R. Ambedkhar University, Agra, India awarded him with doctorate degree. In February 2010, Dr. Bhargavan moved to United States of America to join for his postdoctoral studies at University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. There he started investigating transcription regulation of Lens Epithelial Derived Growth Factor (LEDGF), epigenetic regulation and its role in oxidative stress. Simultaneously he was also exploring LEDGF’s role in prostate cancer. Later, in 2012, he moved to Pharmacology and Experimental Neurosciences at the same University to perform research in HIV and brain. Currently he is working on Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) dysfunction during HIV infection. Dr. Biju Bhargavan has published many research papers in peer-reviewed international journals. He is actively involved with the Editorial and peer reviewer panel for many journals.

HIV, Blood Brain Barrier, Epigenetics, Cancer, Bone biology with specific emphasis to Drug research.