Dr. Gayatri S.

Dr. Sanku began her academic career at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she earned a BS in neuroscience and an MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics. At Georgetown-NIH, her research focused on parasite–viral co-infection models and immune regulation in chronic infectious disease. During her doctoral training, she co-led an NIAID-funded COVID-19 project generating SARS-CoV-2–specific T cells and served as Lead Author on multiple peer-reviewed publications in Frontiers in Immunology. 

While completing her doctoral studies, Dr. Sanku also worked as a consultant to the World Bank Group, where she contributed to flagship reports on pandemic preparedness, genomic surveillance, and health system resilience, including chapters on emerging infectious disease preparedness and One Health strategy. Her work has been presented at national and international conferences, including the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, NIH-FDA symposia, the American Public Health Association, and Psychedelic Science. As a Medical Scientific Liaison with the Americas Health Foundation, Dr. Sanku has facilitated more than ten high-level expert conferences across Latin America, aligning oncologists and immunologists on evidence-based treatment strategies and policy priorities. Her peer-reviewed publications include first-author basic science work on helminth-derived extracellular vesicles and SARS-CoV-2 immune responses, as well as clinical and policy-focused expert consensus manuscripts in journals such as Cancer Control, Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia, and ecancermedicalscience.

Dr. Sanku’s academic journey has been recognized with honors, including the Georgetown Bark Tank Entrepreneurship Finalist distinction, the NTI Biosecurity Challenge Winner Award, and the APHA Genomics Forum Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher Award. She was awarded the Georgetown-NIH Pre-Doctoral Scholarship and has received multiple honors at the University of Illinois, including the UIC Medical Scientist Training Program Award and the UIC School of Public Health Graduate Research Award.

Dr. Sanku is an experienced mentor to undergraduate, MPH, and early-career trainees across academic and policy environments, including mentoring summer interns at NIH NIAID and coaching conference presenters through the Intercollegiate Psychedelic Network. She guides students through literature synthesis, data analysis, and manuscript preparation with a structured yet empowering approach, and provides iterative feedback to help mentees build both technical skill and intellectual confidence. Students she has supported have been accepted to the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, the University of Miami School of Medicine, Harvard Kennedy School, NYU School of Public Health, and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Dr. Sanku believes research is a discipline that sharpens analytical reasoning, intellectual integrity, and systems-level thinking. She has supported students in research projects spanning biostatistics, epidemiology, genomics, public health, health services, health policy, health economics, and behavioral and social sciences. 

Having navigated competitive global health fellowships, international research appointments, and interdisciplinary scientific collaborations across four continents, Dr. Sanku is deeply committed to helping students chart ambitious yet strategic academic paths. She is particularly passionate about expanding access to research for students from diverse lived experiences, and about widening the pipeline so that the next generation of physician–scientists reflects the global communities they serve.