Academics

Bio

Dr. Shikha Gaikwad has done B.Sc, M.Sc and Ph.D in Microbiology. An educationist with 17 years of experience with core competencies in the domain of Applied Microbiology, Biotechnology, Research, Design of Experiments and Analytical Skills in Biology. She has been instrumental in developing Curriculum for Undergraduate, Post Graduate and Ph.D. courses related to Microbiology, Biotechnology, Bioengineering, and Allied Fields. A Career spread over a decade and half; she has played a vital role in implementation of Teaching Learning Processes for Accreditation of the programs. She is actively involved in Educational Administration, Training and Mentoring. She has guided UG and PG students for their Projects, Research paper, review paper, book chapter publications and prestigious conference presentations.

She has shouldered key organizational responsibilities at a departmental level such as Ph.D coordinator, FY B.Tech subject coordinator for the Biology of Engineers, College Exam Officer (CEO), CAP Officer, Time table coordinator, Library Coordinator, Rural Immersion coordinator, Discipline committee coordinator, Mentor mentee Coordinator, Cultural Committee coordinator, Board of studies Coordinator, and MSc Program Coordinator. At present she is working as an IQAC core committee member at a University level.

Dr. Shikha has successfully completed funded research projects on “Bioremediation of Hydrocarbon contaminated site by Bacteria” and “Plant growth traits of Rhizobacteria” leading to quality publications in the National and International Journals. She has published research, review papers and book chapters in high impact journals. She submitted more than 10 bacterial 16S rRNA, 3 Yeast 18S rRNA and 1 bacterial-whole genome sequence on NCBI platform. She recently is working on “Biosurfactant production from bacteria and biotechnological approaches involved in its optimization”. She is a PhD guide of two students.

She is a Life Members of various national and international society related to the field of Life Sciences such as Indian Society of Microbiology, Indian Society of Pharmacology, Microbiological Society of India, Association of Microbiologist and Asian PGPR Society in a Sustainable Agriculture. She is a peer reviewer in a reputed Journals. She has been invited as a guest speaker at prestigious institutes. She has also organized various National level Faculty Development Programs (FDPs), Workshops, Seminars, Webinars and Conferences. She is an active consultant for Industries working in the sector of Water and Wastewater Treatment, Plant Disease Management and Control, Fermentation Technology.

Subject Taught

Biology for Engineers, Applied and Enviromental Microbiology, Industrial Microbiogy, Food and Dairy Microbiology, Microbial Taxonomy and Diversity, Ecology, Evolution and Waste Water Microbiology, Microbial Genetics, Microbiology, Bioanalytical Techniques, Microbial Biotechnology, Environmental Microbiology: Scope and Applications, Advanced Microbiology.

Research Interests

Bacterial Metabolites (Poly hydroxybutyrate (PHB)-Bioplastic, Melanin, Biosurfactants), Yeast metabolites (beta Glucans),Bacterial-Metabolomics, Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Integrated approaches for Bioremediation and Biodegradation, Biostimulants formulation and application as an Integrated nutrient-Pest management Strategies (INM), Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR), Sustainable wastewater treatment and Disinfection strategies by using Hydrodynamic Cavitation.

Research Papers

The Sources, Biosynthesis, Extraction, and Characterization of β-Glucans. Shradha Chaudhari, Shikha Gaikwad, Satish Polshettiwar, Shraddha Ram, Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology for publication in year: 2025 ;Vol : 18 ; issue : 1.

Bioformulation of Bacillus proteolyticus MITWPUB1 and its biosurfactant to control the growth of phytopathogen Sclerotium rolfsii for the crop Brassica juncea var local, as a sustainable approach Mukadam H, Gaikwad SV, Kutty NN and Gaikwad VD (2024),Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 12:1362679. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1362679

Extraction of Environment Friendly Biodegradable Poly-Hydroxy Butyrate using Novel Hydrodynamic Cavitation Method” A. A. Lad, V. D. Gaikwad, S. V. Gaikwad, A. D. Kulkarni and S. P. Kanekar, Nature Environment and Pollution Technology. Year 2024. Vol. 23 pp. 475-483 2024, https://doi.org/10.46488/NEPT.2024.v23i01.043

Isolation, Screening of Micrococcus luteus S2B1 Bacteria and Optimization of its Biosurfactant Producing Conditions, Shikha V. Gaikwad, Esha S. Waghdhare, Priyanka S. Nawal, and Vikrant D. Gaikwad , 2nd International Conference & Exposition on Mechanical, Material, and Manufacturing Technology (ICE3MT 2022) AIP Conf. Proc. 2943, 050002 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0183321.

Treatability study of slurry bioreactor technology for bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soil. Vikrant Gaikwad and Shikha Gaikwad, in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, 25 (3): pp 1429- 1434, (2019).

Effect of Orifice Shape on Water Disinfection Efficacy. Vikrant Gaikwad, Shikha Gaikwad and Vivek Ranade, in Pollution Research, 35 (4): pp 765-771, (2016)

Biosurfactants: Types, detection methods, importance and applications. Rohit Nikam, Nikhil Shah, Shikha Gaikwad, and Vaijayanti Sapre, in Indian Journal of Microbiology Research, 3 (1): pp 5-10, (2016)

Structural and Functional Diversity of Rhizobacterial Strains Isolated from Rhizospheric Zone of Different Plants of Sholapur-Maharashtra Region, India, Shikha Gaikwad and Vaijayanti Sapre, in International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 4(9): pp 263-273, (2015).

Decolonization of pulp paper mill effluent by endophytic strains Bacillus spp and Pseudomonad spp of Mimosa pudica using batch reactor, in the International Conference on Clean and Green Environment-2009, Indo-Italian Embassy, MIT College of Engineering, SSPU, Pune, Maharashtra, 3rd-4th Dec.,2009

Integrated Disease Management: An ecofriendly way to control Pathogenicity of phytopathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in the International Conference on Clean and Green Environment-2008, Indo-Italian Embassy, MIT College of Engineering, SSPU, Pune, Maharashtra, 20th-21st Mar., 2008

Antibacterial activity of medicinal plant Crateava nurvala (bark) against bacterial strains causing U.T.I. in Asian Journal of Chemistry, Shikha Chandra and Chandra Prakash Gupta, 13 (3): pp 1181-1187, (2001).

Books Published

1)Mukadam H, Gaikwad SV, Kutty NN and Gaikwad VD (2024), Bioformulation of Bacillus proteolyticus MITWPUB1 and its biosurfactant to control the growth of phytopathogen Sclerotium rolfsii for the crop Brassica juncea var local, as a sustainable approach. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 12:1362679. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.136267, ISSN 1664-8714 ISBN 978-2-8325-5036-6 DOI 10.3389/978-2-8325-5036-6.

2)Tapping Significance of Microbial Surfactants as a Biopesticide and Synthetic Pesticide remediator. London, United Kingdom: IntechOpen, 2023. Shikha Gaikwad,https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/tapping-significance-of-microbial-surfactants-as-a-biopesticide-and-synthetic-pesticide-remediator-a,DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.

3)Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence of Escherichia coli in the Purview of Public Health Monitoring, in Escherichia coli Infections - An Update. London, United Kingdom: IntechOpen, 2022 [Online]. P. Dhumal, S. Bajpai, N. Garge, A. Bhatt, F. Rampurwala, N. Sulaimani, S. Gaikwad, U. Roy, M. Mishra, and R. Deshmukh, www.intechopen.com/online-first/84577, doi: 10.5772/intechopen.108299. (https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/antimicrobial-resistance-and-virulence-of-escherichia-coli-in-the-purview-of-public-health-monitorin)

Teaching and Research Experience

17 Yrs