Dr. Gurushankara did his MSc in Zoology from the University of Mysore and obtained his Ph.D. from Kuvempu University, Karnataka. He served as faculty in the Department of Environmental Science at Kuvempu University and the Department of Bioscience at the University of Mysore. His Post-Doctoral Research at the University of Mysore and the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. He worked as Coordinator (Biology) at Talent Development Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He has been working in the Department of Zoology at the Central University of Kerala (CUK) since its inception (2010). He teaches Cell and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Immunology, Translational Immunology, Basics of Neurobiology, and Toxicology to M.Sc. Zoology and School of Biological Sciences students. He is also offering a skill-based course on Genetic Disease Diagnosis. Dr. Gurushankara is an external examiner for P.G. examinations and adjudicates the Ph.D. thesis of many Indian Universities. He is instrumental in designing the course curriculum of Zoology.

Dr. Gurushankara is guiding 2 Ph.D. students and guided 2 Ph.D. and more than 50 M.Sc. students' dissertation work. He has published more than 30 research papers and presented his work at national/international meetings. He has authored the book "Understandings in Cytogenetic Techniques." His scientific articles in the Kannada encyclopedia (Viswa Kosha, The University of Mysore) and books. Dr. Gurushankara is a scientific reviewer for many scholarly national and international journals and project proposals. He is a life member of the Indian Immunological Society, Indian Academy of Biomedical Sciences; Indian Science Congress; Environmental Mutagen Society of India; Society of Biological Chemists India; International Association for Ecology (INTECOL), and Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force–South Asia (DAPTF–SA). Dr. Gurushankara has organized many National and International Scientific meetings. He was invited to give a lecture at many Scientific meetings/colleges/workshops/refresher courses. UGC, DBT, and DST funded his research projects. He has research collaborations with the Indian Institute of Science, the Central University of Karnataka, and other premier institutes. Dr. Gurushankara's research interests include the Development of Neuro-Protective Strategies Against Alzheimer's Disease, Antimicrobial and Anticancerous Activity of Peptides, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) neurobiology.