Indira Mysorekar, Ph.D.
Title : Assistant Professor Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Education:
BS: Molecular Biology, University of Lund, Sweden (1994)
MS: Molecular Biology, University of Lund, Sweden (1995)
PhD: Developmental Biology, Washington University, St. Louis (2002)
Bio:
Indira Mysorekar, Ph.D. was born in India where she lived for the first 8 years of her life, before moving with her family to East Africia. She lived there until she was 15 and then came to North Canton, OH as an exchange student and graduated from high school in 1989. Indira obtained a combined BS/MS degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Lund in Lund, Sweden in 1994. Following that she moved to St. Louis, MO where she conducted her doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University and received her Ph.D. degree in Developmental Biology in 2002. Her interest in bladder epithelial biology and host-microbial interactions gained during the latter half of her Ph.D. studies then led her to join the Hultgren Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in 2003. There she developed and characterized mouse models to study adult urothelial stem cell niche activation responses to injury and identified molecular markers of stem cell activation. She also established systems for inducible urothelial-specific generation of loss of function mutants in key genes important for epithelial turnover in the bladder. Dr. Mysorekar was recently recruited as a tenure track junior faculty to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology where she is establishing her own laboratory and is continuing her work on mechanisms of epithelial renewal in the normal and diseased urinary bladder. Her research work encompasses studies of chronic and recurrent UTIs to fundamental mechanisms of urinary bladder development and homeostasis, to bladder cancer. She is the receipient of multiple awards and fellowships including the prestigious 5 year Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) award from the National Institutes of Health. She also received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Infectious Disease Scholars Program Postdoctoral Fellowship award and the Academic Women's Network Leadership Award for Outstanding Student from Washington University School of Medicine. Email: mysorekari@wudosis.wustl.edu
Lab Members:
Megan Isaacson-Schmid: (Research Technician): Megan graduated from the University of New Hampshire in May 2007 with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. Megan joined the Mysorekar Lab in December 2007 and is currently working as a research technician in the Mysorekar Lab studying urinary tract infections in wild type and knockout mice. She hopes to attend medical school in the upcoming years. Email: schmidm@wustl.edu
Manvi Anand: (Research Technician): Manvi graduated from Emory University in December 2007 with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. Manvi joined the Mysorekar Lab in March 2008 and is currently working as a research technician studying the regeneration of the bladder and the mechasims of urinary tract infections. Manvi hopes to attend graduate school in the future and study developmental biology. Email: anandn@wustl.edu
Jacqueline Cunkleman, MD: (Postdoc): Jackie completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology here at Washington University School of Medicine. She just joined Dr. Mysorekar's laboratory on July 1, 2008.