People

The people of the Acharya Lab at Case Western Reserve University focus on immunoengineering, immunometabolism, drug delivery materials, biomaterial development, metabolite delivery, mitochondrial biology and more. Meet our lab members, and former lab members, below.

Principal Investigator

Abhinav Acharya, PhD

Associate Professor

Biomedical Engineering

Case School of Engineering

School of Medicine

Member

Cancer Imaging Program

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Email: axa1826@case.edu

Current Lab Members

Abhirami P Suresh (she/her)

Suresh’s CV | Suresh's LinkedIn
Email: aps223@case.edu

Suresh is a third-year graduate student trying to understand the process of cancer metastasis in better detail. She hopes to use this information to develop therapeutics for the same. Her hobbies include reading, painting and watching crime-thrillers.

A person with long hair smiling at the camera

Arezoo Esrafili (she/her)

Esrafili’s CV | Esrafili's Linkedin
Email: aesrafil@asu.edu

Esrafili is a chemical engineer with a master’s degree from Sharif University of Engineering. Her research focuses on the effect of different crystallinity of biomaterials in vaccine immunotherapy especially in mice bearing melanoma tumors. In her free time, she relaxes with yoga and enjoys nature by hiking.

A person on the shore smiling at the camera

Abhirami Thumsi (she/her)

Thumsi's LinkedIn
Email: axt920@case.edu

Thumsi’s research focuses on metabolite-based therapies for auto-immune diseases, specifically rheumatoid arthritis. We develop drug-delivery based systems to achieve antigen-specific responses towards self-antigen reactive immune cells in the body. She is also excited about venturing into metabolic intricacies involved in diseases as well as the immune cells. Outside of the lab, she really enjoys hanging out with her friends, dancing and a really good cup of coffee.

A person with dark hair wearing a black and white shirt

Taravat Khodaei (she/her)

Khodaei’s CV | Khodaei's LinkedIn
Email: txk576@case.edu

Khodaei is a PhD student in the biomedical engineering program. She has completed her master’s degree in tissue engineering from the University of Tehran. Her research interests include immunoengineering and drug delivery. Specifically, she is interested in developing strategies to target cancer and autoimmune diseases. She enjoys traveling, cardio exercises, hiking and exploring new cuisines

Madhan Mohan Chandra Sekhar Jaggarapu (Sekhar) (he/him)

Jaggarapu’s CV | Jaggarapu's LinkedIn
Email: mxj516@case.edu

Jaggarapu is an avid researcher with a PhD in chemistry from CSIR-IICT, India. He has nearly nine years of research experience in nanoparticle-biomaterial in chemical biology. His professional training has covered multidisciplinary approaches including synthesis of small molecule drug, peptides, micro as well as nano-carrier based delivery of pDNA, siRNA, small molecules (drugs, metabolites). Hands-on experience with in-vitro and in-vivo works (cancer and other diseases like pancreatitis, wound healing, RA, MS). Jaggarapu is passionate about developing biomaterials to orchestrate the immune system in cancer and immune related diseases.

Margaret (Maggie) Dugoni (she/her)

Dugoni’s CV | Dugoni's LinkedIn
Email: mdugoni@asu.edu

Dugoni is a biomedical engineering PhD student at Arizona State University who is currently co-advised by Dr. Abhinav Acharya and Dr. Julianne Holloway (ASU). She previously attended Villanova University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and worked on regulating the immune response to improve viral transgene delivery in cancer treatments. She also worked for a year in industry on drug development systems and processes at Coherus BioSciences. Now, she is working on immunomodulatory biomaterials in relation to bone repair and osteoporosis.

Her interests include immunoengineering, pharmacology, and drug delivery. Her hobbies include hiking, thrifting, and exploring new places.

Huikang Qian (he/him)

Ph.D. Student
Huikang's CV
Email: hxq102@case.edu

Huikang is a first year graduate student. His research focused on therapeutic effects of gene-modified cells and bacterias. In his free time, he enjoys scuba diving, fishing, and tennis.

Lintecum is a former business owner, motivational speaker, and lab manager. She loves backpacking, snowboarding, traveling, yoga, rock climbing, and playing games with her family.

Wei Sun (he/him)

Ph.D. Student
Email: wxs461@case.edu

Wei Sun is currently a research assistant in the Acharya lab. He will be a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at CWRU in fall 2024. He earned his MS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) and BS-MS in Biomedical Engineering from Southeast University (Nanjing, Jiangsu, China). His research interest lies in using chemistry and engineering methods to address health-related problems. He aims to develop skills and gain a deeper understanding of metabolism and immune engineering. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, photography, running, and ice skating.

Dr. Sanmoy Pathak (he/him)

Postdoctoral Fellow
Sanmoy's CV
Email: sanmoy.pathak@case.edu

Sanmoy started his academic career with a B.Sc. in Zoology from Calcutta University and M.Sc.
in Biotechnology from Jadavpur University. He eventually developed an interest in Immunology
and pursued a PhD in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His PhD research involved the
understanding of how plant based immunomodulators regulate T cell and macrophage
responses using a colitis model system. Finally, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of
Immunity and Transplantation, University College London, he worked on the ontogeny, fate and
function of FoxP3 + Tregs in both health and disease using different tumour model systems. He is
passionate about continuing research in the field of immunotherapy.

His hobbies include singing and listening to good music, reading books, watching movies and traveling.

Graduate Alumni

Joslyn Mangal, BSc, PhD

Email: jmangal@asu.edu
Current Position: PI, Immunometabolix, LLC

Mangal was born and raised in central California. She completed her bachelor of science in cognitive and neuroscience with an emphasis in learning and memory from the University of Arizona in 2015. From 2015-2018, she began working in clinical research at Synexus. She earned a PhD in the biological design program with research interests in immunoengineering, biomaterials, the gut microbiota, and treating immune-related diseases (e.g. autoimmunity, cancer and food allergies) in 2022. She enjoys DIY crafts, yoga and spending time with her dogs.

Sahil Inamdar, MS, PhD

Email: sahil.inamdar@asu.edu
Current Position: Scientist, Khloris Biosciences

Inamdar has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Mumbai University. He then decided to pursue MS from Arizona State University in the same field because of its high-quality interdisciplinary research. He graduated with a master’s degree in fall 2017 and with a PhD in 2022. His research interests include radiotherapy, targeted drug delivery for cancer treatment, immunoengineering, sensors and biomaterials.

He loves playing tennis, music and road trips.

Michelle Halim

Master’s student with thesis, research scientist
Email: mhalim1@asu.edu

Halim is a Moeur Award recipient and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Arizona State University in 2022. She is a master of science in chemical engineering student through ASU’s accelerated 4+1 program. Her research interests include immunoengineering/immunotherapy and biomaterials.

In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, playing piano, soccer, and tutoring.

Nicole Appel

Postdoctoral fellow
Email: nappel@asu.edu

Appel was a postdoc in the Acharya Lab. She earned her PhD in molecular and cellular biology at Arizona State University studying T cell response to metastatic osteosarcoma and how transitioning an immunology lab course to a CURE format impacted students. Her research interests include cancer immunology and immunometabolism. When she’s not doing research, she enjoys solving strategic puzzles and practicing yoga.

Shivani Mantri

MSc student
Email: svmantri@asu.edu

Mantri is pursuing a master’s in biomedical engineering and is working in Dr. Acharya’s lab. Mainly she works with mouse breeding and genotyping. Before joining Arizona State University, she completed her undergraduate in biotechnology engineering, and did internships in different sectors such as food industry, biopharmaceuticals, tissue engineering, and biomedical instruments. Her research interests include biomaterials, immunoengineering, and autoimmune diseases. Her hobbies include listening to music, reading books, and spending time with loved ones.

Kelly Lintecum (she/her)

Research Specialist
Lintecum’s CV | Lintecum's LinkedIn
Email: klintecu@asu.edu

Lintecum received a bachelor of science in molecular biology and graduated from Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. She is an All-USA and All-Arizona Academic Team member. She brings a unique skill set to the Acharya Lab with eight years of diverse experience in an academic research setting.

Her journey as a cross-disciplinary scientist began with basic exploration and the discovery of novel bacteria in the deep ocean. She was later involved in cancer research, analyzing single cells with computerized tomography. Her expertise in PCR led to the development of a droplet digital PCR prototype for in situ environmental monitoring. Later in her career, she pioneered a mouse breeding and genotyping program. Today, her research focus is drug delivery and vaccine development in
inflammatory disease models including traumatic brain injury.