Prahatha Venkatraman

Prahatha

I am originally from Chennai, India and majored in biotechnology for my B.Tech at SASTRA University, Thanjavur. For my final year thesis, I had worked under Dr. Malathi Jambulingam at the Dept. of Microbiology in Sankara Nethralaya. I then moved to Brisbane, Australia to obtain a Masters in Molecular Biology at The University of Queensland. I worked in Dr. Elizabeth Coulson's lab studying the molecular interactions of p75NTR and amyloid precursor protein (APP). Upon graduation, I moved back to India for a year during which time I worked as a Project Assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; and as a Clinical Research Associate at Vijaya Hospitals.

I joined the Biological Sciences PhD program at Purdue in 2012, and the Leung lab as a graduate student in 2013. I am interested in identifying and studying drug targets for retinal degeneration that could potentially have therapeutic effects. I will be using Zebrafish as the model system to study different eye disease models, investigate drug targets using the opto-kinetic response (OKR) and the visual-motor response (VMR). Outside of lab, I enjoy baking and cooking new dishes across cuisines; and playing badminton.