Ananth Aditya

Highly motivated researcher with a PhD in Immunology and specific expertise in T-cell biology. Experienced in leading autoimmune TCR target discovery, screening, and validation using engineered TCR-T cell-lines. Proficient in molecular biology benchwork, NGS, cell-based functional assays for antigen discovery, data analysis, advanced computational skills for TCR repertoire analysis, and bioinformatics.

Quick learner with a demonstrated ability to adapt to cross-functional collaboration, work with interdisciplinary teams, and function at the intersection of computation and Immunology.

Postdoctoral Scientist at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) (2025-08 – Present)

Among key personnel of the disease team AND analytics core of the Sjögren's team for AMP (STAMP) Early Disease Project. Leading early discovery efforts by investigating TCR and BCR repertoires from 5' CITE-Seq. Currently spearheading design and optimization of TCR analysis pipelines for target discovery in the TCR/BCR working group, integrating repertoire and transcriptomic data for the identification and annotation of pathogenic T-cell clusters in Sjögren's Disease (SjD)

Graduate Research Assistant at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) (2019-03 – 2025-07)

TCR Repertoire Profiling & Antigenic Epitope Mapping in Sjögren's disease (SjD) – Generated the largest collection of deep-sequenced TCRs in SjD to date. Conducted comprehensive (case v. control) and exploratory repertoire analyses with diverse workflows to characterize CD4+ TCRs in SjD. Identified disease-associated TCR motifs and determined the antigen-specificity of target receptors for further validation by screening TCR-engineered cell lines against target proteins

• Implemented NGS library construction (SMART Seq) for TCR deep-sequencing from PBMCs
• Collaborated with data scientists to design, optimize, and implement analysis pipelines and identify target TCRs
• Integrated scRNA (tissue) and bulk TCR seq (blood) to derive novel insights into repertoire-sharing in SjD
• Identified antigen-specific TCRs shared across SjD patients using clustering algorithms
• Discovered pathogenic and protective TCR motifs correlating with clinical disease measures in a methodical case vs. control study with potential to inform targeted therapies
• Designed synthetic receptors (gBlocks) for TCR-cloning into vectors through Gibson assembly
• Engineered TCR-T cells by retrovirally transducing patient TCR-encoding plasmids into T-cell lines
• Designed and executed in vitro functional assays to screen TCR-T reactivity for autoantigenic peptides from Ro and La proteins in a co-culture with B cells
• Developed and optimized protocols for large-scale epitope mapping by screening >50 patient-derived target TCR clones against 659 autoantigenic peptides
• Identified the first human Ro60 CD4+ T-cell epitopes that elicit dose-dependent T cell responses in SjD patients

Undergraduate Research Intern at Manipal Institute of Virology (2016-02 – 2017-06)

• Worked towards identification of candidate proteins in O. tsutsugamushi for the diagnosis of Scrub Typhus
• Performed molecular docking and simulation (GROMACS) to evaluate stability of antigen-antibody complexes
• Standardized PCR conditions for a reproducible diagnostic protocol

PhD in Microbiology and Immunology – University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (2018 – 2025)

Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology – Manipal University (2013 – 2017)