IIT Madras Project Research Scientist II Advt 212/2026

IIT Madras Project Research Scientist II Recruitment 2026: Overview

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is hiring Project Research Scientist II staff for the Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering on its Chennai campus. The posts come through the institute's Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR) under advertisement ICSR/PR/Advt.212/2026, with Prof. Raghavendra Sai V V as project coordinator.

You will work on the ICMR-funded MolOnco-DnT-CenTr project, a translational centre for diagnostic and therapeutic technologies in molecular oncology. The focus of this role is a plasmonic fiber-optic biosensor that detects DNA biomarkers linked to gastric cancer. That means building a U-bent fiber-optic sensor, coating its probe with capture oligonucleotides, pairing 5-methylcytosine antibodies with gold nanoparticles for the signal, and setting up a hybrid sandwich assay that picks out methylated DNA.

The bigger goal is a point-of-care device: the reagents must stay stable for at least one year of shelf life, and the optimised assay has to move onto a multiplex platform for faster, higher-throughput testing before validation on real clinical samples. If you know PCR and molecular biology techniques, you will be preferred. This is a contract project post that starts for one year and can be extended if your performance is good.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• Contract only: The post is purely contractual. Finishing the contract gives you no right to an extension, regularisation or a permanent job at IIT Madras.
• Tenure: The first term is one year; any extension depends on how well you perform.
• Nationality: You must be an Indian citizen. Subjects of Nepal and people who migrated from Pakistan to settle permanently in India can also apply, but they need an eligibility certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs before appointment.
• Current IIT Madras project staff: Apply through proper channel, or bring a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to the document check, test or interview. Without the NOC you will not be allowed to appear.
• Experience rules: Only experience gained after your minimum qualifying degree counts. The institute may relax the experience requirement for SC/ST candidates if too few experienced candidates from these groups apply, and may relax rules for exceptionally outstanding candidates.
• Shortlisting: IIT Madras can limit how many people it calls for the written test, skill test or interview, using qualifications and experience above the minimum. Only shortlisted applicants are contacted.
• Cut-off for eligibility: Every eligibility condition is judged as on the closing date of the online application.
• Testimonials: You may send testimonials from people who know your work well; if you are employed, your most recent employer or immediate superior should be the referee.
• Women candidates: The institute aims for a gender-balanced workforce and encourages women to apply.
• Updates: Any corrigendum or clarification will be posted only on the IIT Madras website; no separate message will be sent.

Application Submission Notes

Apply only through the IC&SR careers portal of IIT Madras. In the current openings list, find advertisement Advt.212/2026 and apply against that position. The portal accepts one application per login email for each advertisement, and you cannot edit it after you submit, so check every entry first.

Do not post a hard copy to the institute. Keep a printout of the submitted form, because you must hand it over if you are called for the test, interview or document verification. All communication comes by email only, so give an address you check daily.

For technical problems with the online form, write to recruitment@imail.iitm.ac.in or icsrrecruitment@iitm.ac.in, or call 044-2257 9796 between 9 AM and 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday. These contacts handle technical issues only, not questions about selection.

• Design and develop a U-bent plasmonic fiber-optic biosensor for gastric cancer DNA biomarkers
• Functionalize probe surfaces with capture oligonucleotides and conjugate 5-methylcytosine antibodies with gold nanoparticles
• Build a hybrid sandwich assay to detect selected methylated DNA biomarkers
• Develop assays for given DNA/RNA or antigen targets and check that results are reliable and reproducible
• Stabilise antibodies and oligonucleotides to give point-of-care devices at least one year of shelf life
• Optimise probe chemistry, conjugation and signal amplification, then move the assay onto a multiplex platform
• Carry out bioanalytical validation and large-scale analysis of clinical samples