Dr. Preethi Ragunathan is a structural biologist/biochemist interested in bacterial physiology and antibiotic resistance. She works as an Assistant Professor at the CAS in Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras. Her graduation was in Biochemistry and post-graduation from Biotechnology of the University of Madras. She has several research grants from various national and state-level funding agencies and collaborations with researchers from USA, Italy, and Japan. She is a member of the Indian Biophysical Society, Indian Crystallographic association, etc.

Dr. Preethi Ragunathan is interested in understanding gene expression, transcription with alternate sigma factors of Streptococcus pyogenes. Inhibition of bacterial RNA polymerase as a potent target for antibiotic resistance using small molecules, cyclic peptides, etc are also her active areas of research.