Sooraj Achar

As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Sooraj performed computational biology research under the supervision of Professor Cameron Mura. His research in Professor Mura’s group involved using molecular dynamics simulations to gain a better understanding of the kinetics of protein-RNA binding interactions in bacterial RNA chaperones. He also conducted research at the NIDDK with Dr. Caroline Philpott, where he analyzed the interaction dynamics of two cytosolic mammalian iron chaperones using immunoprecipitation assays and molecular docking. Upon graduation, Sooraj joined the laboratory of Dr. Gregoire Altan-Bonnet at the NCI as an NIH post baccalaureate fellow, where his project focused on deconvolving the effects of the quality (TCR binding affinity) and quantity (surface density) of an antigen on T cell activation. During the course of this research project, Sooraj developed and optimized a robotic platform and data processing pipeline to allow for high time resolution measurements of many aspects of T cell activation dynamics. In his doctoral research project, he aims to combine these robotics-based temporal measurements with microscopy-based spatial measurements of immune cell activation to gain a holistic understanding of how T cell activation is governed by antigen quality. His eventual goal is to apply these techniques to analyze CAR-T cell activation to produce more robust pre-clinical metrics for assessing immunotherapy efficacy.