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Sonal Srikanth is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. She obtained her PhD from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, under the mentorship of Dr. Gaiti Hasan, focusing on the biophysical properties of the Drosophila melanogaster Inositol 1, 4, 5 trisphosphate receptor (InsP3R). Prior to her current appointment, she completed a year of postdoctoral research at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dr. Ilya Bezprozvanny's lab, conducting lipid bilayer experiments to examine the single-channel properties of InsP3R. Additionally, she has worked in Dr. Anjana Rao's laboratory at Harvard Medical School, performing a genome-wide Drosophila RNAi screen that led to the identification of Orai1, a critical component of Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels in immune cells. Her research interests include the regulation of the immune system and store-operated Ca2+ entry mediated by Orai and STIM proteins. She has developed proteomic and genomic tools to identify mechanisms influencing store-operated Ca2+ entry and is currently investigating the role of large Rab GTPases in T cell receptor signaling pathways. Furthermore, she is exploring the regulation of innate immune responses by Orai/STIM proteins using tissue-specific knockout animal models.
Department of Economics admits primarily for the PhD program.