Professor with experience in genomics, nanotherapeutics, and drug discovery. 

K.M. Gothandam serves as Professor Higher Academic Grade at Vellore Institute of Technology's School of Bio Sciences and Technology. With over 25 years of expertise in genomics, plant breeding, and biotechnology, he also brings some involvement in bioinformatics and transcriptomics. His work focuses on functional genomics, plant secondary metabolites, microbial metabolites and and enzymes, bioremediation, biofertilizers, cancer biology, and genomics. He leads research in functional genomics and nanotherapeutics, including mentoring on reduction of overexpressed biomolecules in cancer using nanotherapeutics and anticlastogenic potential of marine actinobacteria.

Previously, Gothandam held the position of Dean of School of Bio Sciences and Technology at Vellore Institute of Technology. He also worked as Research Professor at School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University. Gothandam completed a B.Sc. in Botany, M.Sc. in Plant Science, M.Phil. in Botany, and Ph.D. in Genetics.

Gothandam lead projects advancing carotenoid production and anticlastogenic studies against mammary carcinogenesis. One notable achievement came from a DBT project from 2017 to 2021, which achieved overexpression of phytoene synthase gene in Dunaliella salina, advancing carotenoid production in algal genomics. Similarly, CSIR and DST projects from 2008 to 2015 enabled functional analysis of zeta-carotene desaturase in tomato and inhibition of phytoene desaturase in Dunaliella, marking key successes in plant genomics. A DST project from 2017 to 2020 demonstrated in vitro and in vivo anticlastogenic potential of marine actinobacteria against mammary carcinogenesis, a success in cancer biology and nanotherapeutics. Currently, an ongoing ICMR project explores Lactobacillus vesicles for treating oral pathogens, contributing to microbial genomics research.

His contributions extend to several published textbooks, and convening in or presenting for international conferences, including the International Conference on Current Trends in Biotechnology and post conference on Strategies for Environmental Protection and Management. He has over 250 publications, including such often cited works on:
- Microbial biotechnology and enzyme production, with a focus on halotolerant bacteria, protease optimization, cold-active serine proteases.
- Algal biotechnology and oxidative stress mitigation, with a focus on growth enhancement, carotenoid accumulation, antibiofilm properties in algae.
- Cancer biomarkers and progonstic studies, with a focus on inflammatory ratios (NLR/PLR/LMR), miRNA-drug resistance, and apoptosis pathways.
- Nanotechnology and Green Synthesis, with a focus on nanoparticle synthesis for anticancer/antidiabetic/antimicrobial effects, immunimodulation.