I am originally from India and received my BS in Biology and MS in Botany from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. I received my doctorate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Southern Mississippi. During my doctoral research, I used Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organism to study glucose sensing and signaling. In 2009, I joined the Cardiovascular Biology Program at OMRF where I implemented the Cell Biology, Molecular and Biochemical tools I learned in my doctoral studies to investigate the regulation of VEGF-VEGFR2 signaling in various mouse models under both physiological and pathological settings. I have now transitioned to Staff Scientist in the Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Program at OMRF where I will investigate the functional genomics of autoimmune diseases. My work will focus on deciphering the molecular mechanism disrupted by the systemic lupus erythematosus risk loci variants: TNFAIP3, TNIP1, UBE2L3 and IRF5.