Research Team
Nirmala Parajuli, DVM, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)
My long-term goal is to develop therapeutic strategies to prolong the viability of donor kidneys used for transplantation. To accomplish this, I am focusing on identifying the cold-ischemic pathways that are responsible for inducing renal damage following transplantation using a rat model established by our laboratory. I have chosen to focus on how the complement system, molecular chaperone, and proteasome pathway converge to exacerbate renal damage in renal transplants. Currently, I have two active projects:
- Targeting heat shock protein 72 to improve renal function after transplantation (NIH supported)
- The role of complement components C3 and C5 during renal cold storage and transplantation (Intramurally funded)
Dinesh Bhattarai, DVM, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Dr. Bhattarai joined this lab in March 2022, where he is investigating the mechanisms of renal proteasome dysfunction following rat kidney cold storage plus transplantation. Dr. Bhattarai graduated with a Veterinary Medicine Degree from Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 2010 and a PhD Degree from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China in 2017.
Seong-ok Lee, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Dr. Lee joined Dr. Parajuli’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow in January 2023, where she is investigating the role of heat shock protein 72 during rat kidney cold storage and transplantation.
Madison “Katie” McGraw, B.S. (Ph.D. Candidate)
Ms. McGraw joined this lab in July 2023 as a rotating graduate student and continued working as a full-time graduate student. Her research project involves evaluating the role of complement component C5 during cold storage and transplantation.
Caleb LeGrand, B.S. (Medical Student)
Mr. LeGrande is a second-year medical student at UAMS. He joined this lab as the UAMS Honors in Research fellow in 2023. He is evaluating the impact of hypothermic machine perfusion vs.static cold storage on the outcome of rat kidney transplant.
Former Research Team
Gopinath Venugopal, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Dr. Gopinath Venugopal worked as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Parajuli’s lab from 2021-2022. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Free University Berlin, Germany in Aug, 2019.
Li Jiang, B.S. (Research Technician)
Li Jiang worked in Dr. Parajuli’s lab as a research technician in 2021.
Sorena Lo, B.S. (Research Technologist)
Sorena Lo was recruited as a research technician in Parajuli’s lab in 2016 and was later promoted to Research Technologist until 2020.