Our team

Principal Investigator: Siva Karthik Varanasi, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Innate Immunity
Department of Medicine




Dr. Varanasi received his BSc in Biotechnology from Osmania University in 2006, an MSc in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology in 2011, and a PhD from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 2018. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences working with Susan Kaech. He joined the faculty in the Division of Innate Immunity at UMass Chan Medical School in 2024. 

Lab members

Sofia Baptista, MD-PhD Student

I study interactions between stellate cells and T cells in liver diseases. In my spare time I enjoy baking and teasing my cousins.

Prasanthi Kaja, Research Associate

I’m a researcher interested in the biology of cancer, particularly tumor-microenvironment crosstalk and signaling pathways explaining cancer etiology. My experience so far has helped me adapt, collaborate, and follow scientific questions across disciplines.

Sushmitha Vijaya Kumar, PhD, Project Manager

Ph.D. in Genome Science and Technology, passionate about applying new technologies to science and scientific communication.

Join our lab

We are actively building a team, interested candidates please send your CV and a brief description of your research experience and what interests you in the field to sivakarthik.varanasi@umassmed.edu.