Gunjan Kukreja, PhD, MSc

Gunjan pursued her MS degree in Molecular Genetics at University of Leicester, United Kingdom (2009), and her PhD degree also at Department of Genetics, at University of Leicester, UK (2014). Her MSc thesis focused on investigating Human Herpes Virus-6 (HHV6) insertion in human telomeres and its effect on telomere length and function, in the Royle lab. Her PhD thesis focused on characterizing the transcriptional gene regulation and protein interactions in human pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans, in the Cashmore lab. She was involved in Identification of the regulatory genes involved in iron and copper homeostasis and she determined the molecular mechanism of action of the Cu-sensing trans-activator protein, by analysing protein - protein interactions. Gunjan continued working at the Cashmore lab at the University of Leicester as a post-doctoral fellow in 2014, where she attempted to examine localisation of ferric reductases in Candida albicans, using fluorescence microscopy. Due to her previous variant research background and training and strong interest in cancer biology, she joined the Lemmon-Ferguson lab as a Research Associate in July 2016.

As part of the Yale Cancer Biology Institute, Gunjan was studying EGFR mutations involved in lung adenocarcinoma in order to characterize whether mutation is activating or non-activating, in vivo. She was attempting to address the oncogenic potential of tumor derived somatic mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor kinase domain. She created stable BaF3 mammalian cell lines, using FACS techniques for sorting - to investigate levels of phosphorylated EGFR expression between wild type (negative), known oncogenic mutations (positive) controls and unknown oncogenic mutations.

Gunjan is currently working as a Research Associate and Lab manager in the Sadeghi lab, Department of Internal medicine at Yale Cardiovascular Research Center (YCVRC) and Cardiology Department at VA hospital.
Molecular imaging provides a unique opportunity to link vascular and molecular biology and imaging, ultimately leading to the development of novel imaging approaches, both for research and clinical diagnostics. The ultimate goal of research in the Sadeghi laboratory is to develop novel imaging approaches to detect the molecular pathobiology of the vessel wall in vivo. This is followed by the use of the state of the art technology to develop novel tracers targeted at relevant molecular markers, and establish molecular vascular imaging protocols in animal models of human diseases.

Gunjan also acts as Lab Manager for the two Sadeghi labs located in Yale Cardiovascular Research center in School of medicine, on main campus and in VA CT Healthcare. She assists the Principal Investigator with the daily operations of both the laboratories and is responsible for managing the smooth running of the labs.