Associate Professor
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
📍 4F10, Academic Block II
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Research Area
Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology
Research Interests
Our research activities aim to advance the understanding of Electromicrobiology, an emerging sub-discipline of Environmental Microbiology, and contribute to developing sustainable biotechnologies for valorizing liquid and gaseous wastes. Electromicrobiology pertains to studying microorganisms that can exchange electrons with insoluble electron acceptors and donors via extracellular electron transfer processes to sustain their respiratory and metabolic activities. Our current research is primarily focused on the following areas.
• Bioprospecting of extreme microorganisms capable of extracellular electron transfer (EET) and understanding their EET-based anaerobic metabolic processes
• Development of an integrated bioprocess platform for renewable electricity-driven production of chemicals from industrial CO2
• Development of integrated microbial electrochemical technologies for sustainable wastewater management and resource recovery at point sources
2024 - 2027 : Expert member, Board of Studies in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Subjects under the Faculty of Science and Technology of Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pimpri, Pune
2020 - 2024 : Elected board member, International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET)
Since 2018 : Editorial board member: Bioresource Technology Reports journal
Since 2020 : Associate Editor, Microbiotechnology specialty section of Frontiers in Microbiology, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology and Frontiers in Environmental Science journals
2017 - 2023 : Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali
2016 - 2017 : Senior Alexander von Humboldt research fellow, Institute of Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
2005 - 2008 : Lecturer, Department of Biotechnology, Tatyasaheb Kore Institute of Engineering and Technology, Warananagar, India
2013 - 2016 : Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow, Center of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
2011 - 2012 : Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher, Institute of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Center for Molecular Protein Science, Lund University, Sweden
2007 - 2011 : Ph.D.*, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India
2008 - 2010 : DAAD Ph.D. scholar, Institute of Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
2003 - 2005 : M.Sc. in Microbiology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India
2000 - 2003 : B.Sc. (Specialization in Microbiology), Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India
A team led by Dr. Sunil A. Patil with his Ph.D. students Moumita Roy and Ravineet Yadav was among the top 7 winners at Carbon Zero Challenge, a flagship event organized by IIT Madras (2023).
CDC India – Prof. Ashok Pandey research excellence award for 2021 of the Biotech Research Society, India (BRSI) in recognition of contributions to the Environmental Biotechnology area (2022).
Best Teacher Award 2021, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (2022).
Elected board member (2020-2024), International Society of Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET) (2020).
Humboldt fellowship for the experienced researchers by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2016-2017). Host institute: Technical University Braunschweig, Germany.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship (MC-IEF/PIEF-GA-2012-326869) by the European Commission. Host institute: Ghent University, Belgium (2013-2015).
Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral research fellowship in the framework of the European Commissions’ Initial Training Network project “Chebana” (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN-264772). Host institute: Lund University, Sweden (2011-2012).
DAAD Ph.D. scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service. Host institute: Technical University Braunschweig, Germany (2008-2010).
Honored by Shri Warana Vibhag Shikshan Mandal, Warananagar (India) for outstanding achievements during 2007-2008.
Shivaji University Merit Scholarship, Postgraduate (M.Sc.) education (2004-2005).
Eklavya Scholarship for Postgraduate Education by Government of Maharashtra (2003-2005).
First rank in M.Sc. (Microbiology), Shivaji University, Kolhapur (2003-2005).
Ravi K Yadav, Siddhant Sahoo, Asheesh K Yadav and Sunil A Patil. Green wall system coupled with slow sand filtration for efficient greywater management at households. npj Clean Water 6(1):73, 2023.
Ravi K Yadav, Sovik Das and Sunil A Patil. Are integrated bioelectrochemical technologies feasible for wastewater management?. Trends in Biotechnology 41(4):484–496, 2023.
Ravineet Yadav, Banani Chattopadhyay, Rashmi Kiran, Ankit Yadav, Anand K Bachhawat and Sunil A Patil. Microbial electrosynthesis from carbon dioxide feedstock linked to yeast growth for the production of high-value isoprenoids. Bioresource Technology 363:127906, 2022.
Moumita Roy, Ravineet Yadav, P Chiranjeevi and Sunil A Patil. Direct utilization of industrial carbon dioxide with low impurities for acetate production via microbial electrosynthesis. Bioresource Technology 320(Part A):124289, 2021.
Sukrampal Yadav and Sunil A Patil. Microbial electroactive biofilms dominated by Geoalkalibacter spp. from a highly saline–alkaline environment. npj Biofilms and Microbiomes 6:38, 2020.
P Chiranjeevi and Sunil A Patil. Strategies for improving the electroactivity and specific metabolic functionality of microorganisms for various microbial electrochemical technologies. Biotechnology advances 39:107468, 2020.
Sunil A Patil, Jan Arends, Inka Vanwonterghem, Jarne Meerbergen, Kun Guo, Gene Tyson and Korneel Rabaey. Selective enrichment establishes a stable performing community for microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2. Environmental Science and Technology 49(14):8833–8843, 2015.
Sunil A Patil, Sylvia Gildemyn, Deepak Pant, Karsten Zengler, Bruce E Logan and Korneel Rabaey. A logical data representation framework for electricity-driven bioproduction processes. Biotechnology advances 33(6):736–744, 2015.
Sunil A Patil, Kamil Górecki, Cecilia Hägerhäll and Lo Gorton. Cisplatin-induced elongation of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 cells improves microbe–electrode interactions for use in microbial fuel cells. Energy & Environmental Science 6(9):2626–2630, 2013.
Sunil A Patil, Falk Harnisch, Christin Koch, Thomas Hübschmann, Ingo Fetzer, Alessandro A Carmona-Mart\'ınez, Susann Müller and Uwe Schröder. Electroactive mixed culture derived biofilms in microbial bioelectrochemical systems: the role of pH on biofilm formation, performance and composition. Bioresource technology 102(20):9683–9690, 2011.