UCSF’s innovative, collaborative approach to patient care, research and education spans disciplines across the life sciences, making it a world leader in scientific discovery and its translation to improving health.
The goal of our research is to understand how the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), their clonal composition and competition, and their progeny affect initiation of blood disorders. Early-onset clonal hematopoietic disorders, including malignant diseases like pediatric MDS or acute myeloid leukemia, are states of significant disturbance of the balanced clonal output. Origins of these early-onset diseases are poorly understood, but likely involve developmental acquisition of mutations that shape hematopoiesis over years.
I am a clinical fellow in the division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UCSF. My background includes pediatric training in India and the United States, with an interest in blood stem cell transplantation (SCT) and cellular therapies. I have seen firsthand how curative options like transplantation and gene therapy can transform outcomes for children with hematologic disorders, which has shaped both my clinical focus and research direction. I joined the Avagyan lab to study the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of monosomy 7 associated myeloid malignancies.
I am a Staff Research Associate in the Avagyan Lab. My project focuses on understanding how early genetic changes in blood stem cells can lead to blood cancers like myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloid leukemias in patients with GATA2 deficiency. Outside lab I’m a big foodie, I love trying out new restaurants, going to all-you-can-eat happy hours, exploring the city and annoying my cat.
I received my BS and PhD degrees in Animal Biology from UC Davis. As a fish care specialist, I taking care of ~1000 tanks of zebrafish in Wagner Lab and Avagyan Lab everyday. At the same time, as a post doctoral researcher, I am studying the similarity of gene expression between homologous genes in humans and zebrafish by building a cross-species single-cell RNA-seq reference atlas.
I am a clinical pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at UCSF. My research interests include improving outcomes in pediatric leukemia through mitigation of treatment toxicity and further understanding its pathogenesis, especially in underserved populations.
