Dr. Elena Gracheva

Biography

Elena Gracheva is a professor at Yale School of Medicine specializing in Cellular and Molecular Physiology and Neuroscience. Her research focuses on somatosensation and thermoregulation, particularly the molecular evolutionary mechanisms that allow somatosensory and thermoregulatory systems to adapt to changing environmental and behavioral needs. She employs various methodologies, including biochemistry, bioinformatics, live-cell imaging, and electrophysiology to investigate the physiological and clinical significance of thermoregulation. Notably, she studies mammalian hibernators as models to understand the cellular basis of thermotransduction and how different species adapt to extreme physiological conditions. Her work has implications for human health, including insights into inducible hypothermia, cold tolerance, and tissue transplantation. She holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Research Interests

Awards