Biology prof Giri Akkaraju
A member of the TCU faculty since 2002, his research interests include the pathogenesis of Hepatitis C virus infection, anti-cancer drug discovery and tissue engineering. Giri received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1997. Before coming to TCU, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Zhijian Chen at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
He was born in the city of Bombay (now Mumbai), India, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry in 1985. He came to the U.S. in 1986 to pursue graduate studies in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. His Ph.D. thesis was based on his studies on using Herpes Simplex Virus I as a gene therapy vector for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
He went on to do two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, where he studied the effect of cell-killing drugs on cancer cells, and at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he studied the mechanisms by which viruses avoid the immune system.
His current research focuses on Hepatitis C virus, specifically studying the mechanism by which it persists in the body and causes liver cancer.
He has been married to Mala Ganapati, a social worker, since 1993 and has two dogs. Giri says his hobbies include sitting in on classes at TCU, reading about history, specifically the history of science and travel [he has circumvented the globe twice and visited 20 countries on five continents] and working in his garden and on his house.
