Staff Profile

Background

Melvin is a Biostatistician at the Translational and Clinical Research Institute. His research integrates advanced statistical methods and machine learning techniques to address critical questions in Leukaemia and Clinical Epidemiology.

He works closely with multidisciplinary teams, contributing to the entire research lifecycle from study design and advanced analytics to supporting grant writing, student supervision, publication, and collaborative problem-solving. Prior to joining Newcastle University, he led and supported large-scale cancer and public health research initiatives in India.

Current Position

• 2022 - Present: Research Assistant - Statistics | Leukaemia Research Cytogenomics Group | Centre for Cancer | Newcastle University | Newcastle upon Tyne | United Kingdom

Previous Positions

• 2019 - 2022: Associate Research Officer (Biostatistics) | Department of Biostatistics | Christian Medical College, Vellore, India
• 2018 - 2019: Statistician | St. John’s Research Institute | Bangalore, India
• 2017 - 2018: Biostatistician Trainee | PSG Institute of Medical Sciences & Research | Coimbatore, India

Education and Qualifications

Master of Science. Biostatistics

St. Thomas College, Palai, Kerala, India

(Affiliation: Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India)

Professional Memberships

• Royal Statistical Society (RSS)
• American Statistical Association (ASA)
• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Statistics Group
• Indian Society for Medical Statistics (ISMS)
• Indian Association for Statistics in Clinical Trials (IASCT)

Manuscript Peer Review

Journals: Nature Communications, BMJ Public Health, Leukemia Research, Dialogues in Health, Indian Journal of Medical Research

Research Profiles

ORCiD | Google Scholar | Research Gate | LinkedIn | Web of Science | PubMed | Scopus

Research Focus

Melvin's work specialises in the development and validation of prognostic models and risk stratification algorithms. By integrating complex clinical, genomic, and biomarker data, this research directly informs personalised therapy decisions and contributes to the development of precision medicine for leukaemia patients.

Methodological Expertise

His methodological expertise includes clinical trial analysis, survival analysis, longitudinal data modelling, and the integration of statistical and machine learning techniques for analysing high-dimensional biomedical data. He is proficient with a range of analytical tools, including Stata, R, SAS and SPSS, and also has experience using spatial/GIS tools.

Research Interests

• Clinical Trial Analysis
• Survival Analysis
• Prognostic Modelling and Risk Prediction
• Longitudinal Data Analysis
• Integration of Statistical and Machine Learning Methods
• Translational Cancer Research & Precision Medicine

Research Projects

Current Research Projects

• BIOINFORM: Biologically informed treatment decisions in acute leukaemia (Funded by Cancer Research UK).
• ALLTogether1 - A treatment study protocol of the ALLTogether consortium for children and young adults (0-45 years of age) with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (Sponsor: Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden).

Completed Research Projects (2022-2025)

• Evaluating integrated and multi-biomarker driven risk stratification in paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Funded by Cancer Research UK).

Completed Research Projects in India (2017-2022)

• Induction related mortality score in acute myeloid leukaemia: Prospective validation study (Hematology Cancer Consortium, India).
• Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of generic low-dose Dasatinib for frontline therapy in chronic phase chronic myeloid leukaemia - A multi-centre phase II single arm study (Hematology Cancer Consortium, India).
• Cytogenetic and clinicopathological features of myelodysplastic syndrome (Christian Medical College, Vellore, India).
• Estimating the burden of paediatric HIV in an "A" category district in India: Cohort study of children exposed to maternal HIV - phase 2 (Funded by Indian Council of Medical Research).
• Tea consumption and diabetes management (PSG Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, India).

Selected Invited Talks & Presentations

• "Cytogenetic landscape and outcome in childhood B-Cell precursor ALL: Insights from UKALL2003 and UKALL2011 Trials." NUCancer Conference, Newcastle University. June 2025.
• "De-intensifying post-induction therapy for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, good risk genetics and intermediate MRD at the end of induction." 21^st Annual Meeting of the Childhood Leukaemia Research UK (CLR-UK), University of Cambridge. September 2024.
• "Numbers to knowledge: A statistician's guide to research, careers, and data resources." Invited Talk, Department of Biostatistics, St. Thomas College, Palai, India. December 2023.
• "A robust and validated prognostic index to assign post-induction therapy in adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia." NUTCRI LIVE 2023 Conference, Newcastle University. June 2023.
• "Potential effect of BCG on COVID-19 mortality: A meta regression approach on global data." 38^th Annual Conference of the Indian Society for Medical Statistics (ISMSCON-2020). December 2020.

Student Supervision

MRes: Supervised six master's students between 2022 - present

BSc: Supervised four undergraduate students between 2022 - present

• Articles

  • Babu M, Sappani M, Joy M, Chandiraseharan VK, Jeyaseelan L, Sudarsanam TD. Prediction of mortality in sepsis patients using stacked ensemble machine learning algorithm. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine 2024, 70(4), 209-216.
  • Srivastava VM, Nair SC, Joy M, Manipadam M-T, Kulkarni UP, Devasia AJ, Fouzia NA, Korula A, Lakshmi KM, Jeyaseelan L, Abraham A, Srivastava A. Higher prevalence of poor prognostic markers at a younger age in adult patients with myelodysplastic syndrome – evaluation of a large cohort in India. Molecular Cytogenetics 2024, 17, 21.
  • Mani T, Babu M, Mohanraj R, Kumar S, Joy M, Sappani M, Viswanathan S, Bangdiwala SI, Jeyaseelan L. Familial risk and dowry demand: Are they causal factors for physical and psychological violence among women? A structural equation modeling. Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences 2024, 11(2), 5-12.
  • Prithishkumar IJ, Sappani M, Ranjan V, Garg C, Mani T, Babu M, Joy M, Rao B, Asirvatham ES, Lakshmanan J. Double burden of malnutrition among women of reproductive age: Trends and determinants over the last 15 years in India. PLoS ONE 2024, 19(6), e0304776.
  • Enshaei A, Joy M, Butler E, Kirkwood AA, Messina M, Pavoni C, Morgades M, Harrison CJ, Foa R, Ribera J-M, Chiaretti S, Bassan R, Fielding AK, Moorman AV. A robust and validated integrated prognostic index for defining risk groups in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia: an EWALL collaborative study. Blood Advances 2024, 8(5), 1155-1166.
  • Sappani M, Mani T, Asirvatham ES, Joy M, Babu M, Jeyaseelan L. Trends in prevalence and determinants of severe and moderate anaemia among women of reproductive age during the last 15 years in India. PLoS ONE 2023, 18(6), e0286464.
  • George TK, Sharma P, Joy M, Seelan G, Sekar A, Gunasekaran K, Abhilash KPP, George T, Rajan SJ, Hansdak SG. The economic impact of a Covid-19 illness from the perspective of families seeking care in a private hospital in India. Dialogues in Health 2023, 2, 100139.
  • Joy M, Mani T, Jeyaseelan L, Babu M, S M, Kumar S, Mohanraj R, Viswanathan S, Bangdiwala SI. Reduction in prevalence of spousal physical violence against women in India: evidence from three national surveys. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 2023, 30(3), 352-361.
  • John KJ, George TK, Joy M, John B, Abraham OC, Prasad J. Costs & outcomes of hospitalized scrub typhus infection in a tertiary hospital in south India. Indian Journal of Medical Research 2023, 157(6), 559-567.
  • Kundavaram APP, Selvan S, Raja V, Mathiyalagan P, Kanagarajan R, Reddy NP, Rajendiran N, Hazra D, Gunasekaran K, Moorthy M, Lenin A, Mathew D, Iyyadurai R, Varghese GM, Dj C, Joy M, Peter JV. Retrospective study of comparison of clinical severity and outcome of hospitalised COVID-19 patients during the first and second waves of the pandemic in India. BMJ Open 2022, 12(11), e062724.
  • Marimuthu S, Thenmozhi M, Joy M, Babu M, Sudarsanam TD, Jeyaseelan L. Interpretation and estimation of conditional power in interim analyses of clinical trials: Often-ignored in decision making process. Indian Journal of Applied Research 2022, 12(10), 51-55.
  • Abhilash KPP, Mathiyalagan P, Krishnaraj VRK, Selvan S, Kanagarajan R, Reddy NP, Rajendiran N, Hazra D, Gunasekaran K, Moorthy M, Jasmine S, Davis JP, George T, George K, Varghese GM, Rupali P, Barney Isaac TJ, Gupta R, Pichamuthu K, Joy M, Jayaseelan L, Mathews P, Peter JV. Impact of prior vaccination with Covishield^TM and Covaxin^® on mortality among symptomatic COVID-19 patients during the second wave of the pandemic in South India during April and May 2021: a cohort study. Vaccine 2022, 40(13), 2107-2113.
  • Thomas M, Chiramel M, Priyanka M, Singh M, Ponraj L, Devakumar K, Balan F, Joseph A, Joy M, Jeyaseelan L, George R. Feasibility of store-and-forward teledermatology in out-patient care: A prospective study from rural India utilising specialist referral services through an instant messaging platform - "WhatsApp". Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and EHealth 2022, 10(e2), 1-9.
  • Joselyn A, Suhag K, Joy M, Jeyaseelan L. Development and validation of Daycare Anesthesia Satisfaction (DAS) questionnaire to assess patient's satisfaction with daycare anesthesia. Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology 2022, 38(3), 474-479.
  • S M, Mani T, Joy M, Babu M, Jeyaseelan L. Challenges in the application of Machine Learning algorithms in Biomedical Research. Journal of Applied Statistics and Machine Learning 2022, 1(2), 117-126.
  • Marimuthu S, Mani T, Joy M, Jeyaseelan L. A step by step guidelines to project the COVID-19 cases using a Deep Learning Approach. Advances in Neurology and Neuroscience 2022, 5(3), 130-137.
  • Marimuthu S, Joy M, Malavika B, Nadaraj A, Asirvatham ES, Jeyaseelan L. Modelling of reproduction number for COVID-19 in India and high incidence states. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health 2021, 9, 57-61.
  • Christal Vimala TJ, Martin R, Rao AS, Joy M. Level of anxiety and factors influencing anxiety among orthopedic surgical patients in a secondary care center in India. CHRISMED Journal of Health and Research 2021, 8(1), 29-34.
  • Joy M, Malavika B, Asirvatham ES, Sudarsanam TD, Jeyaseelan L. Is BCG associated with reduced incidence of COVID-19? A meta-regression of global data from 160 countries. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health 2021, 9, 202-203.
  • Malavika B, Marimuthu S, Joy M, Nadaraj A, Asirvatham ES, Jeyaseelan L. Forecasting COVID-19 epidemic in India and high incidence states using SIR and logistic growth models. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health 2021, 9, 26-33.
  • Mammen JJ, Kumar S, Thomas L, Kumar G, Zachariah A, Jeyaseelan L, Peter JV, Agarwal A, Mukherjee A, Chatterjee P, Bhatnagar T, Rasalam JE, Chacko B, Mani T, Joy M, Rupali P, Murugesan M, Daniel D, Latha B, Bundas S, Kumar V, Dosi R, Khambholja JR, De Souza R, Chander BT, Bahadur S, Dube S, Suri A, Jindal A, Shrivastav O, Barge V, Bajpayee A, Malhotra P, Singh N, Tambe M, Sharma N, Bhat S, Kaulgud RS, Gurtoo A, Reddy DH, Upadhyay K, Jain A, Patel TC, Nagori I, Jha PR, Babu KVS, Aparna C, Panjwani SJ, Natarajan M, Baldi M, Khadke VK, Dua S, Singh R, Sharma A, Sharma J, Gokhale YA, Yadav PD, Sapkal G, Kaushal H, Kumar VS. Factors associated with mortality among moderate and severe patients with COVID-19 in India: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open 2021, 11(10), e050571.
  • Christal Vimala TJ, Martin R, Rao AS, Joy M. Effectiveness of structured pre operative education on anxiety level of patients undergoing elective orthopaedic surgery. Indian Journal of Continuing Nursing Education 2021, 22(2), 200-206.
  • Mariappan R, Cherian VT, Joy M, Selvaraj KG. Effect of low dose ketamine on perioperative analgesia in patients undergoing open abdominal hysterectomy - A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. The Indian Anaesthetists’ Forum 2021, 22(1), 67-72.
  • Pillai R, Nair BR, Prabhakar PK, Singh G, Lionel KR, Moorthy RK, Joy M, Mariappan R. Ultrasound-guided transmuscular quadratus lumborum block for anterior iliac crest bone graft promotes early ambulation in patients undergoing cervical corpectomy and fusion. Indian Journal of Pain 2020, 34(3), 175-182.
  • Meenakshisundaram R, Senthilkumaran S, Thirumalaikolundusubramanian P, Joy M, Jena NN, Vadivelu R, Ayyasamy S, Chandrasekaran VP. Status of acute myocardial infarction in southern India during COVID-19 lockdown: A multi-centric study. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes 2020, 4(5), 506-510.
  • Thomas AS, Moorthy RK, Raju K, Lakshmanan J, Joy M, Mariappan R. Measurement of non-invasive blood pressure in lateral decubitus position under general anaesthesia - Which arm gives more accurate BP in relation to invasive BP - Dependent or non-dependent arm?. Indian Journal of Anaesthesia 2020, 64(7), 631-636.
  • Asirvatham ES, Lakshmanan J, Sarman CJ, Joy M. Demystifying the varying case fatality rates (CFR) of COVID-19 in India: Lessons learned and future directions. Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 2020, 14(10), 1128-1135.
  • Mathew AC, Benny JK, Philip DM, Dhanya C, Joy M, Sandhiya V, Ramesh S, Neelakandan K. Socio-demographic and clinical correlates of exclusive breastfeeding practices up to six months of age. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 2019, 9(3), 772-780.
  • George S, Joy M. Antimicrobial activity of methanolic extract of Ludwigia Parviflora L. against standard bacterial strains and comparison of its activity with that of standard antibiotics. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research 2019, 12(3), 430-432.
  • Mathew AC, Joy M, Kishan S, S DM, V K, R SK, Ma Y. Consumption of tea and its relation to risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences 2017, 4(3), 83-87.
  • Mathew AC, Kishan S, Joy M, S DM, A A, R SK. Chocolate consumption and its relation to risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. International Journal of Advances in Medicine 2017, 4(5), 1473-1476.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Gulbey O, Delft FV, Enshaei A, Joy M, Kirkwood AA, Moppett J, Samarasinghe S, Vora A, Moorman AV. Early response refines end of induction measurable residual disease stratification in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. In: EHA2024 Hybrid Congress. 2024, Madrid: Wiley.
  • Moorman A, Joy M, Enshaei A, Kirkwood AA, Harrison C, Schwab C, Goulden N, Moppett J, Samarasinghe S, Hough R, Rowntree C, Lawson S, Kearns P, Mee J, Vora A. De-intensifying post-induction therapy for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, good risk genetics and intermediate MRD at the end of induction. In: EHA2024 Hybrid Congress. 2024, Madrid: Wiley.
  • Selvin Sundar Raj M, Lalwani M, Alam R, Valson AT, Athul T, Eapen JJ, John EE, Yusuf S, Vc A, Joy M, Alexander S, Varughese S, David VG. POS-769 Does early asymptomatic bacteriuria affect graft outcomes in kidney transplant recipients from South Asia?. In: The International Society of Nephrology's (ISN) World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) 2021. 2021, Montreal, Canada: Elsevier Inc.
  • Kumar S, Nagasubramanian S, Jacob Philip George A, Thampi John N, Devasia A, Joy M. P0583 - Comparison of early surgical outcomes of laparoscopic partial nephrectomy between T1a and T1b renal tumors with the incorporation of EAUiaiC in the "trifecta" – a retrospective study reported according to EAU standardized quality criteria. In: European Association of Urology Congress (EAU21). 2021, Virtual: Elsevier BV.

• Letters

  • Moorman AV, Enshaei A, Murdy D, Joy M, Boer JM, den Boer ML, Pieters R, de Haas V, Horstmann MA, Escherich G, Johansson B, Marquart HV, Schmiegelow K, Hancock J, Moppett J, Heyman M. Integration of genetics and MRD to define low risk patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with intermediate MRD levels at the end of induction. Leukemia 2024, 38, 2023-2026.
  • Connor DO, Joy M, Enshaei A, Kirkwood A, Kearns PR, Samarasinghe S, Moppett J, Moorman AV, Vora A. Cranial radiotherapy has minimal benefit in children with central nervous system involvement in T-ALL. Blood Advances 2023, 7(23), 7231-7234.