PhD at St. John’s Medical College


St. John’s Medical College offers PhD Programme for Medical Sciences and Allied Health sciences. The institute is recognized for various PhD programmes by the RGUHS. Since then high quality research contributing to the knowledge hub in the field of health sciences has been carried out. The institute has collaborations with reputed Universities which opened up avenues for international research opportunities and PhD programmes. The availability of state of art equipment and infrastructure is a boon to the PhD scholars to undertake challenging tasks. The academy also encourages interaction and collaboration across various branches of Medical, Allied sciences and molecular biology, thereby providing a wholesome approach to research under one roof.




St. John’s Medical College and Hospital Facilities


St Johns Medical College and Hospital is a tertiary-care, referral and teaching hospital that provides ethical and professional clinical care and treatment across all specialities ably supported by diagnostics services that includes laboratory-based, imaging and interventional facilities that remains affordable and accessible.

With over 40 departments working as a team St Johns provides most needs of the patients • Hospital facilities enables St Johns to provide for all health-related emergencies including those required in mass casualty incidents and disaster situations. • Facilities for day- care are available that are restricted to targeted interventions and the care of chronic patients. • Intensive care and Treatment units are spread across all ages of patients in need from new-born to adults, surgical to medical, and speciality to super specialities. • Laboratory facilities are comprehensive and reasonably priced covering routine haematology, biochemistry including Immunology, genetics and molecular diagnostic requirements. Diagnostics available are imaging services under radiology and interventional diagnostics through the many super specialities existing on campus. Linkages to medico-social assistance and community outreach facilities exists for continuation of care and the pastoral department provides for spiritual needs of our patients. • All specialities and super speciality consultations exists in-house. • Outpatient and Inpatient facilities are well-equipped and support the provision of comprehensive affordable and quality health care under one roof. State-of-Art and accredited laboratory services support the care of our patients. • For targeted interventions and continuum of care Day Care Facilities are available. We are a major referral centre for all specialities and super specialities.



Key highlights of the departments offering PhD program

Click on each department to know more

Department of Anatomy offers opportunity for research activity related to gross anatomy, histology, clinical anatomy and anatomy education. Department has well equipped dissection hall, histology laboratory, cadaver resource and body donation programme. Additionally, department is well connected with other clinical departments to engage in interdisciplinary collaborative research. The greatest strength of the department is faculty who are experts in their fields and can offer guidance and support along with strong emphasis on anatomy education that provide opportunities to gain teaching experience and develop skills that will be valuable for future academic positions.

Department of Physiology has been working towards understanding the Physiological changes in health and disease from its commencement. State of the art metabolic labs where energy, substrate metabolism studies and amino acid requirement studies using stable isotope techniques have been conducted. One of its kind, the human skeletal muscle laboratory has been conducting studies which assess muscle quality through physiological, histopathology and molecular based techniques. Department has well-equipped setups including analytical methods to assess various micronutrients status, metabolomics (LCMS, GCMS etc.,), minor OT (for muscle biopsies), nerve conduction, electroencephalogram, electromyography, fitness assessment to name few. Department has been running various nutritional intervention programs to help various clinical conditions. The Department of Physiology has been providing clinical service including clinical autonomic evaluation, body composition, physical fitness, basal metabolic rate, skeletal muscle strength assessment.

The Department of Biochemistry has recognised PhD guides and its diagnostic division offers a wide range of services that includes routine and special diagnostic services. Some of the special diagnostic services include endocrine panels, tumour markers, vitamin assays, therapeutic drug monitoring, anaemia panels, cardiac markers, fertility panels, double markers, evaluation of paraproteinemia, chromatography, new-born screening etc. Pharmacology The key areas under which department of Pharmacology working are: Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Medication Adherence, Clinical Research. Some of the Key Facility Includes-Collaboration with Division of Clinical Research and Training (DCRT) at St. John's Research Institute (SJRI) for national and international projects.

The Department fosters an environment conducive to the performance of high-quality research and development. The Department's faculty and trainees are involved in research activities which contributes to the scientific community, as well as within the institution. All these distinguishing elements allows the department to be at the forefront of education and provides a unique opportunity to conduct variety of training programs. Excellent education and training are central to the department's mission and hence conducts undergraduates, postgraduates, fellowships courses and continuing medical education courses. The training programme provides the students and fellows an integrated approach to all aspects of pathology, with emphasis on integrated patient care, education, and research.

Microbiology is a unique department which can collaborate with any specialty both infectious disease and non-infectious diseases. Each faculty is involved and trained in specific areas that are pathogen specific. We have state of the art facilities to undertake research in key areas including Molecular techniques in Bacteriology, Mycobacteriology, Anaerobic bacteriology, Virology, Mycology and Hospital infection control. The presence of trained and motivated faculty and the facilities helps to mentor and train students and conduct research at any academic level - undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral.

The Department of Community Health has close to 60 years of experience of working in rural and urban underprivileged years of Bangalore and beyond. The Division of Occupational Health Services has close to 50 years of experience with current collaborations with plantations, apparel manufacturing and health care industry. The average teaching experience of the 14 faculty members is close to 20 years. Each of the faculty have carved out an area of expertise for themselves and while contributing equally to the teaching commitments of the Department, they are also involved in service delivery and research into their focal areas. Currently, our faculty are involved in Geriatric Health Services; Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health Care; Non-Communicable Diseases; Community Mental Health; Infectious Diseases; Community Based Rehabilitation and Occupational Health Services.

The department provides all psychiatric facilities including general adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, consultation liaison psychiatry, substance use / addiction psychiatry, rehabilitation psychiatry and geriatric and perinatal psychiatric services. All these services are available in the outpatient clinic every working day, inpatient and day care facilities. The department also has special clinics / services catering to people with alcohol dependence, attempted suicide, eating disorders, autism, mind metabolic clinic, memory clinic and geriatric clinic. The Department has recently been awarded the best undergraduate teaching department in the country by the Indian Psychiatry Society. Comprehensive treatment for all psychiatric illness and issues pertaining to mental well-being are provided in the department including psychological assessments and therapies. The department, apart from providing excellent clinical services and academic activities is also actively associated with research programs.

The Department of Medicine provides a comprehensive program of clinical services including services in the subspecialties of haematology and geriatric medicine. The department is dedicated to advancing the art and science of medicine. We have state-of-theart facilities, a faculty of outstanding clinical scholars and rapidly expanding research programs. The philosophy of our program is based on two key tenets – a) that the patient is centre to our daily work and b) that we do our tasks as a team.

There are 23 state-of- the- art operation theatres spread across 3 floors with the latest GE workstations, monitors and airway gadgets and other equipment’s. There are 20 bedded SICU under anaesthesia that admits multi-speciality post-operative patients and also runs a fellowship in neurocritical care. Complex surgeries are done involving high risk patients in operation theatres and remote locations in the hospital. All faculty are highly trained and skilled including a Ph.D. holder among professors. Research in all sub-specialties including orthopaedics, cardiothoracic, paediatrics, oncology, airway management and neurocritical care is in constant progress.

Paediatric Nephrology care was started in 1999, with 7 beds and is now one of the largest ‘stand alone’ centres in the country. The department of Paediatric Nephrology is at the forefront of basic, translational and clinical research involving children with kidney diseases in the country. Even in research “it’s all about patients” with the overarching focus towards better understanding of kidney diseases relevant to our population as well as improving our clinical management of children with kidney diseases. Apart from clinical research focusing on chronic kidney disease, dialysis, nutrition and quality of life, one of the unique features of our research program is to conduct “bench to bedside” studies. The department in collaboration with Division of Molecular Medicine, St. John’s Research Institute provides a robust research environment as we attempt to combine the two worlds of molecular/cellular science with clinical science to improve care for children with kidney diseases. In the “first of its kind” basic science laboratory dedicated to kidney diseases in a medical college and teaching hospital campus in India supervised by clinician, we use cell biology, genetics and developmental aspects of kidney to understand the kidney diseases. Our department has received funding from various international and national funding agencies for our research such as Canadian Institute of Health and Research, International Society of Nephrology, Medical Research Council of United Kingdom, International Society of Nephrology, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

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