Purushothama Rao Tata PhD

Purushothama Rao (for simplicity, he usually goes by Tata) was born in a small town in south India. He was fascinated by the diversity in animals and plants, especially patterns in biological systems. In school, he admired the theories of Darwin (evolutionary biologist), Mendel (geneticist), and Newton (physicist). Tata finished his high school education in his hometown and joined Kakatiya University to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology. In 2004, he joined the University of Hyderabad, where he pursued his Master of Science in Animal Biotechnology. Then he moved to the University of Ulm, Germany to pursue his doctoral degree. In Ulm (where Einstein was born) he joined Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and started to understand how molecular events guide embryonic development. During his doctoral studies, he played a lead role in characterizing a vertebrate novel gene (brand new) during early embryonic development; identification of epigenetic chromatin regulators of a Pluripotency associated micro RNA cluster (EEmiRC), and understanding the role of a key transcription factor in mesendoderm induction.

His present research interests include 1) to uncover and understand cellular plasticity and the associated mechanisms in lung regeneration and disease; 2) to characterize a novel population of cells in alveolar homeostasis, regeneration, and disease.