Affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Rachana Chandran obtained her PhD in Biological and Biomedical sciences from Oakland University, MI, USA in 2015, where her research focused on identifying novel genes that regulate tracheal dimensions utilizing RNAi technology and UAS-Gal4 system in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Thereafter, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, CT, USA, in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Greif. There she continued her research to understand the lung development and began studying the pathological changes in lung during pulmonary fibrosis pathogenesis. Her studies particularly focused on understanding the dynamics and origin of myofibroblasts in lung development and pulmonary fibrosis using mouse models. For this study she received Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award Currently, she works as an Asst. Project Scientist in Dr. Brigitte Gomperts laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she utilizes spatial microscale transcriptomic and proteomic technologies to understand key pathological changes in patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Her research aspiration is to understand the pathobiology of IPF and to identify better therapeutic targets to stop the progressive nature of IPF, thereby extending the survival of patients with this disease.