He has been studying DNA damage responses in mammalian cells, and mechanisms underlying chromosome instability genetic diseases and cancer.
[3] On his return to India in 2007,[4] he joined his alma mater, Indian Institute of Science, where he serves as a full professor.
[5] His research focus is on cancer biology and chromosome instability and his team is involved in developing DNA repair protocols.
[8] Nagaraju has delivered invited speeches at several international conferences which included the seminar on Distinct roles of RAD51 paralogs in DNA damage responses held at Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics on 4 October 2016[9] and the Indo-French Conference on Recent Advances in Genome Integrity and Plasticity held at Bengaluru in December 2017.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhantnagar Prize in Biological Sciences for the year 2018.