I study how regenerating tissues achieve reliable outcomes. A regenerating structure has to reach the correct size and shape, but the conditions it starts from vary from one instance to the next — different cell numbers, different tissue states, sometimes a developmental defect rather than an injury. My work asks how much a regenerating tissue can absorb before its outcome changes, and what mechanisms set that limit. I approach this by combining quantitative live imaging in adult zebrafish with functional genomics, working mainly in the regenerating scale and fin.
I am currently an NICHD K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Kenneth Poss at the Morgridge Institute for Research, co-mentored by Dr. Stefano Di Talia at Duke University. Previously I was a CAGT Genome Technology Fellow in the Department of Cell Biology at Duke.
I completed my graduate work with Dr. Auinash Kalsotra at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign supported by an NIBIB T32 Tissue Microenvironment Training fellowship, where I studied how alternative splicing controls liver maturation and regeneration using mouse genetics and genomic approaches. I did my undergraduate studies in biochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, working with Dr. D. N. Rao on the biochemical characterization of Type II restriction-modification systems in H. pylori.