Associate Professor Puri is a leader in the area of Industrial biotechnology. He obtained his PhD from India, and did his postdoctoral research at University of Oxford, UK. The major area of his research includes microbial bioprocessing where emphasis is laid upon developing technologies to produce and purify novel molecules such as proteins/ enzymes/ bioactives from variety of unexplored habitats such as marine, and waste agriculture resources. He has immensely contributed towards research areas including: Bioprocessing for bioactive production, Nutraceutical extraction for human health and Nanobiotechnology approaches for bioenergy production. He has published 125 research papers (see SCOPUS, Researchgate, Google Scholar) in the leading International journals of the discipline "Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology". Over the years, he has supervised 21 students to PhD completion in the discipline of biotechnology. He is on the Editorial board of research journals such as Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Catalysts, ISRN Biotechnology, and Marine Drugs.

• Bioprocessing for producing metabolites: It is defined as use of microorganism for producing and processing chemicals for the benefit of mankind. Various enzymes (Cellulase, lipase, proteases and rhamnosidase), polysaccahrides and metabolites (lipids, Omega-3 fatty acid and carotenoids) could be produced and tuned for carrying out biotransformation of processes.

• Nutraceutical for human health (downstream processing): His group addresses enzyme assisted, cost-effective extraction of such bioactives since its considered green and environment friendly. His group has developed bench scale technologies for the extraction of plant based €œbioactives € such as low molecular weight proteins (RIPs), low-calorie sugar substitutes (i.e inulin/ stevioside) and carotenoids (astaxanthin, squalene, and lycopene) from microbial sources. The use of such bioactives is advocated as nutraceuticals/food supplements for enhancing human health.

• Nanobiotechnology for bioenergy: It helps in designing biocatalysts with excellent activity, greater selectivity, and high stability. The properties of enzymes can easily be tuned by tailoring the size, shape, and morphology of the particular nanomaterial. His group has developed nanomaterial based enzyme immobilization for variety of applications in food and biofuel processing industry. His group has recently optimised enzymatic saccharification of locally available lignocellulose biomass for biofuel production, a process most sought after in the biofuel industry.

• Industrial biotechnology
• Bioprocessing