Portrait of Reeta Rao
Reeta
Prusty
Rao
Biology & Biotechnology
Professor & Department Head-Biology & Biotechnology
Affiliated Department or Office
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
UMass Chan Medical School Inst. Drug Resistance
Education
PhD Pennsylvania State University 1999
Postdoc Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research 2005
Expert Bio

Professor Rao's research focuses on understanding and managing fungal diseases. She uses a variety of biochemical, molecular-genetic, and genomic tools and model hosts to explore fungal virulence and host defense strategies. She is interested in identifying novel therapeutics against emerging and drug-resistant fungal pathogens, and study multi-kingdom microbial interactions and probiotics to understand inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s Disease, and ulcerative colitis.

Research areas/Expertise
emerging fungal pathogens
virulence and host defense mechanisms
microbial interactions
microbiome and probiotics
inflammatory bowel disease
Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis
genomics and single-cell genomics

Media Coverage

WPI professors raise ethical questions on CRISPR breakthrough

Worcester Business Journal
WPI professors raise ethical questions on CRISPR breakthrough

The Worcester Business Journal covered a WPI forum on the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. Noted in the article were: Dean, Arts and Sciences, Jean King; Assistant Professor, Social Science, Patricia Stapleton; Associate Professor, Humanities and Arts Bethel Eddy; Associate Professor, Biology and Biotechnology, Rita Rao; and Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Destin Heilman.

For media inquiries please contact:

Colleen B Wamback Associate Director, Public Relations

Colleen B Wamback
Director of Public Relations

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