Satish grew up in the coastal city of Madras in Southern India and completed his bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery from Madras Medical College. He moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate research training. He did his Ph.D. work in the laboratory of Dr. Derek Persons at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He completed his postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Broad Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Vijay Sankaran. In his research, he investigated gene regulatory mechanisms affecting the formation of blood cells and blood disorders, often using insights from human genetic studies. Dr. Nandakumar is a recipient of ASH Scholar Award from the American Society of Hematology and the Charles Epstein Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Research.

Dr. Nandakumar cares deeply about mentoring and training the next generation of scientific leaders that will carry on the work. Outside of work, Dr. Nandakumar likes spending time with his wife and two daughters.

She is originally from the Indian state of Karnataka, She earned her bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Zoology, and Biotechnology from the University of Mysore and her master's in Biochemistry from Dayananda Sagar University.  She worked on a project for her M.S. at Birla Institute of Scientific Research in Jaipur, Rajasthan, titled "GIS-Mapping of oil and gas reservoirs in Jaisalmer sub-basins of the Thar desert by the presence of microbial population," and she was a Research trainee at The Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC)Tata Memorial Center in Mumbai, Maharashtra, where she worked on the project "Structural and Biochemical characterization of Proteasomal subunits"

When Aruna isn't working. she enjoys cooking and she loves to turn visual curiosities into paintings.