Richa Rai

Biography

PI/Faculty: David Gamm

Keywords: Retinal degenerative disorders, Human pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (hPSC-RPE), hPSC-derived retinal organoids (hPSC-ROs), gene therapy, gene editing, CRISPR/Cas9

Education
B.S. 2002, Biotechnology, Bhopal University, India
M.S. 2004, Biotechnology, Indore University, India
M.S. 2011, Crop Science, Washington State University, USA
MBA 2017, Project Management, City University of Seattle, USA

Research
I recently joined Dr. David Gamm’s lab as a Researcher and am very interested in learning more about cellular and molecular mechanisms behind degenerative retinal disorders. My goal is to be able to utilize these learnings to help develop new therapies alongside various cell transplant approaches to widen patient coverage. In my previous position, I worked as a Process Development Scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. In that role, I was responsible for providing technical and scientific expertise to design processes to generate immunotherapy products (CAR-T and TCR), and other cell therapeutics from research/early phase to clinical manufacturing. Over the last few years, through my work in developing immunotherapy products for cancer patients, I have learned how important the research to develop a wide range of therapies is for patients, who are relying on such groundbreaking research to enhance the quality of their lives. This is one of the major reasons that drives me to continue research in the therapy domain and to expand my experience in the field of vision research.

Stem Cell Research Program