Pallavi Surana

BMI 4th Year PhD student
Thesis Advisor: Prof Ramana V. Davuluri
Clinical Co-Mentor: Prof Paolo Boffetta

I am a 4th-year PhD student in the Biomedical Informatics department. I completed my MS in Bioinformatics and Genomics, where I focused on understanding epigenetic risk factors in fruit flies related to autism disease genes. My current research at the Davuluri Lab centers on exploring tissue-specific interactions in both normal and cancer populations, with an emphasis on developing statistical and machine learning methods. For my clinical project, I aim to create a Personal Genome Risk score for lung cancer patients by prioritizing small variant impacts using deep learning models (DNABERT) and analyzing their interactions with external factors like smoking history. My main interest lies in unraveling genetic and epigenetic interactions in complex diseases. In my free time, I’m pursuing a diploma in Indian classical singing and enjoy kayaking.