Research Focus
Garima Arora, PhD, is a Staff Scientist working with Dr. Deepak Kaushal, focusing on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). She applies her expertise in molecular biology, bacteriology and methods of genetic manipulation as she works to develop a live attenuated TB vaccine candidate. Her research interests also include understanding the effect and transcriptional alterations of smoking on the pathogen during TB infection.
Dr. Arora has researched Mtb for more than a decade. She conducted her doctoral research at Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, India. Her research training has focused on identifying newer drug target pathways and scaffolds in order to combat tuberculosis. She and collaborators showed and validated serine biosynthetic and reductive TCA pathways as novel drug targets for development of Mtb therapeutics. She conducted postdoctoral research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas with Dr. Michael Shiloh’s group, where she identified and explored the role of novel regulators of autophagy belonging to GPCRs and ion-channels classes against Mtb.