Manu Shivakumara is a Senior Bioinformatics Engineer at IBBIS, where he supports the development and optimization of the Common Mechanism, an open-source software platform for DNA synthesis screening.

He is a nationally certified bioinformatics professional recognized by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Manu holds a Ph.D. in Genomics and an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, and brings nearly eight years of interdisciplinary research experience analyzing high-throughput, high-dimensional genomic data across diverse taxa spanning the Tree of Life.

Manu has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications, including in leading journals such as Nature and Science, garnering more than 700 citations in the fields of metagenomics, population genomics, and comparative genomics. Prior to joining IBBIS, his previous work at ETH Zurich focused on integrating millions of publicly available environmental DNA datasets with Earth observation data using machine-learning approaches to develop a high-resolution, globally standardized biocomplexity index.

In recognition of his innovative research, Manu was awarded a National Geographic Young Explorer early-career grant for developing novel genetic technologies for biomonitoring. He is also a recipient of the DBT-BINC Research Fellowship, which he held for five years at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, as well as a Phi-Psi Young Researcher short-term fellowship at the Institute for Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology in India.