Lalita Ramakrishnan

Lalita Ramakrishnan is a microbiologist and immunologist who researches the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. She developed the zebrafish as a model to study TB and has made discoveries about how the bacteria thwart the host immune system to prevail. She is also interested in why it takes several months with multiple drugs to treat TB. This is attributed to a phenomenon called drug tolerance. Lalita’s group has identified a mechanism by which TB bacteria become tolerant to multiple drugs. Both areas of their work have led to the discovery of already approved drugs that can be used for TB treatment. Lalita is a practicing physician specializing in infectious diseases.