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 family, playing pickleball and going for walks.

Aruna 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. Before joining Einstein, she conducted research at the Birla Institute of Scientific Research in Jaipur and the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) at Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai. 

Her current research examines how inherited genetic variation influences the clonal expansion of JAK2V617F-mutant hematopoietic stem cells.

Outside the lab, Aruna enjoys cooking and transforming visual inspiration into paintings.

Pratitusti is originally from Kolkata, India. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Human Physiology from the University of Calcutta, her master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from Tezpur University, and her Ph.D. from the CSIR–Indian Institute of Chemical Biology. Her doctoral research examined how circulating proteins regulate inflammation in atherosclerosis.

In the Nandakumar Lab, Pratitusti investigates how inherited genetic variation contributes to clonal hematopoiesis and myeloid malignancies. Her work has identified PURB as a negative regulator of human hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, and she uses CRISPR genome editing, transcriptomics, and proteomics to define its roles in RNA processing and R-loop homeostasis.

Trieu is originally from Vietnam. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Hanoi University of Science and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Virology and Immunology from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Quebec, Canada. His doctoral research examined how Wnt/β-catenin signaling regulates hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell responses during infection.

In the Nandakumar Lab, Trieu studies how inherited variants influence clonal hematopoiesis (CH). He co-led a recent Blood Cancer Discovery study on identifying functional noncoding CH risk variants using MPRA technology and now investigates how antigen presentation influences mutant hematopoietic stem cell expansion.

Aditi is originally from the Bronx. She earned her bachelors degrees in chemical engineering and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She spent three summers working in Einstein's Cell Biology Department, including one summer as a SURP student in the Nandakumar lab.

In the Nandakumar lab, Aditi is working to identify the mechanistic pathway of the PURB gene. Outside of work, Aditi enjoys arts and crafts, playing tennis, and spending time with friends.