Lalita Ramakrishnan

Lalita Ramakrishnan
FRS FMedSci
Born 1959 (age 58–59)
Baroda, India
Alma mater Baroda Medical College (BM)
Tufts University (PhD)
Awards Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)
Scientific career
Fields Microbiology
Immunology
Infectious diseases[1]
Institutions University of Cambridge
University of Washington
Thesis Abelson virus-transformed cells as models of early B lymphocyte differentiation (1990)
Influences Stanley Falkow
Website www.med.cam.ac.uk/ramakrishnan/

Lalita Ramakrishnan FRS FMedSci (born 1959) is an American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the pathogenesis of tuberculosis.[2][3][4] As of 2018 she serves as a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Cambridge where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician.[5] She developed Mycobacterium marinum as a model for tuberculosis working with Stanley Falkow.[5] Her work as appeared in a number of journals, including Science, Nature, and Cell.[1][6][3]

Early life and education

Ramakrishnan was born in 1959 in Baroda[7] and grew up there.[8] Her older brother, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2009.[3] When Ramakrishnan was a child, her mother had three bouts of spinal tuberculosis.[2]

As a high school student, Ramakrishnan excelled at math and physics.[2] Ramakrishnan began attending medical school at age 17, which is "not atypical in India, where specialized training begins shortly after high school."[3] In 1983, she graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine degree in Vadodara[9] from Baroda Medical College.[10]

After taking an elective course in advanced immunology, Ramakrishnan decided to study immunology. In 1990, she graduated from Tufts University with a PhD in Immunology.[9] She then became the first foreign graduate of the medical residency program at Tufts-New England Medical Center.[3] Ramakrishnan completed postdoctoral work in Stanley Falkow's lab at Stanford University, where she developed Mycobacterium marinum as a model for Tuberculosis.[5]

Career and research

In 2001, Ramakrishnan joined the faculty of the University of Washington.[5] There, her laboratory developed the zebrafish model of tuberculosis.[5] The model "enabled a detailed dissection of granuloma formation."[5] In 2010, Ramakrishnan was the senior author of a study which was published as the cover story of Cell.[11] Her team had identified a gene, lta4h, which plays a role in susceptibility and resistance to tuberculosis.[11]

In 2014, Ramakrishnan joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge as a Principal Research Fellow for the Wellcome Trust and Professor of immunology and infectious diseases. She is a practicing physician.[5]

Awards and honours

Ramakrishnan was elected in 2015 to the National Academy of Sciences[10] of the United States.[12] She has received a number of other awards, including a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award.[3] In 2018 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)[13] and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).[14][15]

References

  1. 1 2 Lalita Ramakrishnan publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  2. 1 2 3 Anon (2013). "An interview with Lalita Ramakrishnan". Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. 34: 197. doi:10.1016/j.tips.2013.02.005.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Awardee Profile - Lalita Ramakrishnan | Burroughs Wellcome Fund". bwfund.org. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  4. ↑ "Principal Research Fellows | Wellcome Trust". wellcome.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sheffield, University of. "Professor Lalita Ramakrishnan - Faculty Events - Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health - Faculties - The University of Sheffield". sheffield.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  6. ↑ Lalita Ramakrishnan publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. ↑ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  8. ↑ "Northwest Association for Biomedical Research" (PDF).
  9. 1 2 "About | Lalita Ramakrishnan Lab". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  10. 1 2 "- BSI Inflammation Affinity Group Speakers Bio - Lalita Ramakrishnan - British Society for Immunology". immunology.org. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  11. 1 2 "Researchers discover gene that affects susceptibility to TB and clues to how it works | (e) Science News". esciencenews.com. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  12. ↑ "National Academy of Sciences Elects New Members for 2015". India West. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  13. ↑ "Lalita Ramakrishnan". royalsociety.org.
  14. ↑ "New Fellows for 2018 announced - The Academy of Medical Sciences". acmedsci.ac.uk.
  15. ↑ "Distinguished scientists elected as Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society". The Royal Society. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2018.

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