Gautham moved to the UK to work toward a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Newcastle University in 2016. To further pursue his interest in microbial biotechnology, Gautham studied in the Santini lab at UCL as an MResstudent. Gautham joined the Wallace lab in 2021 as a Darwin Trust funded PhD student, aiming to improve the tolerance of microorganisms to key platform chemical products utilising stress responses.