NEHU Students Land Research Papers in Top Global Journals, Putting Northeast India on Science Map

Shillong: Postgraduate students from North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong have earned international recognition for their research work, with three studies published in leading global scientific journals spanning public health, vaccine development, and drug discovery.

The achievement marks a significant moment for higher education and scientific research in the Northeast, and reflects NEHU's growing standing as a centre for advanced bioinformatics and computational biology.

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All three studies originated from MSc Zoology dissertation projects, carried out under the supervision of Prof. Devendra K. Biswal.

The students behind the work — James, Aiboklang Nongrum, and Wanpher Khongsit — have contributed to scientific discourse on some of the most pressing challenges in global health and medicine.

The first study, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases — a Q1-ranked international journal in infectious diseases and global health — applies social media analytics to identify gaps in public attention toward major vector-borne diseases in India.

The diseases examined include dengue, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, and kala-azar.

The findings are expected to inform stronger public health communication strategies and guide policy interventions in disease-prone regions.

The second paper, published in Frontiers in Genetics, presents a novel computational framework for designing vaccines targeting fasciolopsiasis — a parasitic disease caused by the intestinal fluke Fasciolopsis buski, which remains a public health concern in parts of Asia.

The third study, published in In Silico Research in Biomedicine, uses advanced molecular modelling techniques to identify a potential drug candidate for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that affects hundreds of millions of people globally.

Academics observing the work note that the three studies collectively span the critical fields of digital epidemiology, vaccine development, and drug discovery — all areas where computational tools and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming how biological research is conducted.

That postgraduate students from a university in the Northeast are contributing meaningfully to these fields has been seen as a marker of the region's rising academic confidence and research capability.

Prof. Biswal's role in nurturing this work has been highlighted as central to NEHU's emergence as a hub for interdisciplinary scientific research with global relevance.