Dr. Sasirekha Narayanasamy is a postdoctoral researcher at NIDCR, the National Institute of Health. She earned her doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India. Before that, Dr. Narayanasamy completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Madras. Her research interests involve unraveling the structure-to-function relationship of calcium-binding proteins involved in Ca2+ signaling by integrating multiple disciplines within biology.
Dr. Indu S. Ambudkar received her Master’s degree from Lucknow University and her Ph.D. from Madurai Kamaraj University in India. She joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as a post-doctoral researcher in 1980 and continued as a Research Assistant Professor from 1983 to 1985. She moved to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in 1985 as a Tenure Track Research Fellow and is currently Chief of the Secretory Physiology Section. Her studies have identified critical Ca2+ signaling defects that underlie the loss of salivary gland fluid secretion caused by radiation treatment and the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome. Her research also seeks to identify Ca2+ signaling mechanisms and components that contribute to disease and dysfunction. She is internationally recognized for her contributions in this area and has chaired several major conferences. She is a Steering Committee Member of the NIH-FAN group and has served on the NIH Diversity and Equity Committee as well as the NIH-Women Scientific Advisory Committee. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Researcher Award from the International Association of Dental Research, the NIH Director’s Award of Excellence, and the NIDCR Honor Award for Mentoring.
