![\"Suman](\"https:\/\/medicine.vumc.org\/sites\/default\/styles\/barista_directory_thumbnail\/public\/person\/dassr_0.jpg?itok=j7hmtOOJ\" "\\"Suman")
Suman R. Das,<\/b><\/span> Principal\u00a0Investigator<\/em><\/p>\nPronouns: He\/Him<\/p>\n
Dr. Das holds a Ph.D. in Virology from the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, India. His doctoral research focused on the molecular pathogenesis of HIV-1 subtype C Indian isolates. Following this, he completed a brief postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. Subsequently, Dr. Das joined the Laboratory of Viral Diseases in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as a Fogarty International Fellow, working alongside Drs. Yewdell and Bennink. During this fellowship, his research primarily revolved around comprehending the antigenic evolution of the influenza A virus.<\/p>\n
Afterward, he conducted research at the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta, investigating the human B-cell response to influenza infection and vaccination. Currently, Dr. Das serves as an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His research group employs genomics tools to gain insights into the mechanisms underlying the evolution of RNA viruses such as influenza, RSV, rotavirus EEEV, and enterovirus. His lab has also been exploring the interactions between viruses, hosts, and the microbiome, aiming to determine if the host microbiota influences disease severity and long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n
In addition, Dr. Das’ lab adopts a two-pronged research approach to investigate the antigenic evolution of the influenza virus and its evasion of the host immune response. They are currently developing in vitro and in vivo models to elucidate the underlying mechanisms contributing to this phenomenon. By integrating bioinformatics and synthetic genomics, his team aims to enhance the evaluation of experimental data and improve predictions regarding the future evolutionary trajectory of the influenza virus.<\/p>\n
suman.r.das@vanderbilt.edu\u00a0\/\/ suman.r.das@vumc.org \/\/\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ VUMC<\/a><\/p>\n Office Address:\u00a0161 21st Ave. S., Medical Center North (MCN), Room \/ Suite A-2200, Nashville, TN 37212<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seesandra V. Rajagopala<\/u><\/strong>,<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0Associate Professor of Medicine<\/em><\/p>\n Pronouns: He\/Him<\/p>\n Dr. Rajagopala ‘Raj’ is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He obtained his MS in Biology from Bangalore University, India, and his Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Following that, he pursued a Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Institute for Genomics Research (TIGR) in Rockville, MD, specializing in Prokaryotic Systems Biology with a focus on protein interaction networks.<\/p>\n In the Das lab, his work focuses on:<\/p>\n s.v.rajagopala@vumc.org \/\/\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ VUMC<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pronouns: \u00a0She\/Her<\/p>\n Meghan holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) and a Master of Science (MS) degree from the University of Michigan. She also obtained a Master’s in Health Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her educational background encompasses various fields such as evolution, speciation, molecular microbiology, and immunology.<\/p>\n Prior to joining VUMC, Meghan gained experience in different research positions. She initially worked in a developmental genetics lab at Barnard College and later joined a microbial diversity and genomics lab at Yale University. During her time at Yale, she contributed to several projects, including a study on the interaction between simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and the gut microbiota in wild chimpanzees. Additionally, she played a role in the development of a pipeline for high-throughput bacterial genome sequencing.<\/p>\n Meghan also worked for two years at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), specifically at the JCVI Genomic Center for infectious diseases (GCID). Her research at JCVI focused on the respiratory microbiome and its association with childhood asthma outcomes.<\/p>\n While at Vanderbilt, Meghan has been involved in studying the connections between the host microbiome and various diseases. Her research has covered a wide range of conditions, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), necrotizing enterocolitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, rhinosinusitis, and ventilator-associated pneumonia.<\/p>\n meghan.h.shilts@vumc.org \/\/ PubMed<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Siyuan Ma<\/strong>, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics<\/em><\/p>\n Pronouns: He\/Him<\/p>\n siyuan.ma@vumc.org \/\/ LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ VUMC<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Naresh Mutha<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Research Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n Pronouns: He\/Him<\/p>\n naresh.mutha@vumc.org \/\/ LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ Google Scholar<\/a>\u00a0\/\/ VUMC<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hunter Brown<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Research Assistant III<\/i><\/p>\n Pronouns: He\/Him<\/p>\n Hunter received a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry and a Master of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Before joining the laboratory of Dr. Suman Das, Hunter gained extensive experience in various areas of molecular biology. This includes expertise in mitochondrial bioenergetics, DNA and RNA extraction and purification, rt-PCR, plasmid design, bacterial transformation, mammalian transfection, protein isolation and purification, immunoprecipitation, and Western blot hybridization.<\/p>\n Hunter has worked with a variety of cell lines, including MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, HTEpC, SH-SY5Y, and HEK293T. Since joining the group, Hunter has been primarily focused on MDCK and MDCK-SIAT1, VERO, and HEp-2 cell lines. Additionally, Hunter has experience in culturing viruses in the aforementioned cell lines and conducting various assays. These assays include ELISA, TCID50, Hemagglutination Inhibition, and other neutralization assays such as the ELLA.<\/p>\n hunter.m.brown@vumc.org \/\/\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Rebecca Corzine<\/strong>,\u00a0Research Assistant II<\/i><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Desire’e Evert<\/u><\/b>,\u00a0Research Assistant I<\/i><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Britton Strickland<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0\/\/\u00a0Google Scholar<\/a><\/p>\n Boo Kyung Park<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Research Assistant II<\/i><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Grant Vestal<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Research Assistant III<\/i><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Helen Boone<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Research Assistant II<\/i><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Yi Tan,<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0Staff Computational Biologist<\/em><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n Stephanie Goya<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/a> \/\/\u00a0Google Scholar<\/a><\/p>\n Annie Mai<\/strong><\/span>, Research Assistant II<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RESEARCH FACULTY AND STAFF Suman R. Das, Principal\u00a0Investigator Pronouns: He\/Him Dr. Das holds a Ph.D. in Virology from the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, India. His doctoral research focused on the molecular pathogenesis of HIV-1 subtype C Indian isolates. Following this, he completed a brief postdoctoral fellowship at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7981,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/daslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my\/my-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3009\/2018\/11\/rajagosv-200x300.jpg\")
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![\"meghan](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my\/my-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3009\/2018\/11\/meghan-head-e1689787813471.jpeg\")
Meghan Shilts,<\/u>\u00a0<\/strong>Senior Research Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vumc.org\/biostatistics\/sites\/default\/people\/Ma_Siyuan_002.jpg\")
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<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nLAB ALUMNI<\/h3>\n
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