Anjana Rao

Prof. Anjana Rao is a cellular and molecular biologist. She uses immune cells as well as other types of cells to understand intracellular signaling and gene expression. Prof. Rao's areas of research include signal transduction and gene transcription in immune and other cell types; mechanisms of store-operated calcium entry; mechanisms of action of immunosuppressive drugs; transcriptional mechanisms underlying immune tolerance; chromatin-based mechanisms of gene regulation and cell lineage specification.

Anjana Rao obtained her M.Sc. in Physics from Osmania University in India and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. Following a postdoc at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Prof. Rao joined Harvard Medical School as a Professor of Pathology, a post she held until 2010, when she moved to La Jolla Institute of Immunology. She is also Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at UC San Diego.Along with her collaborator, Patrick Hogan at La Jolla, Rao founded the company Calcimedica.

Prof. Anjana Rao was a member of the Jane Coffin Childs Board of Scientific Advisors, a foundation that supports cancer, for eight years. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cancer Research Institute, a non-profit organization that supports scientific research on cancer immunotherapy.

Anjana Rao has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of Immunologists and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.