Viji Nair

, PhD

Co-Director, Bioinformatics/Computational Biology

Dr. Nair has more than 17 years of experience in bioinformatics and computational biology research in nephrology. Her research focuses on translational science, integrating multi-omic data from patients with various kidney disease etiologies. The goal is to identify key therapeutic targets for disease initiation and progression. Her approaches range from classic mathematical models to more complex AI/ML algorithms. These are used to integrate transcriptomic and proteomics profiles with clinical and structural endophenotypes, identifying biomarkers that predict disease progression and facilitate patient stratification. Dr. Nair's domain knowledge and expertise plays an integral role in identifying gene signatures that predict disease progression, linking these to non-invasive biomarkers, and interpreting their relevance to the underlying pathophysiology of the mechanisms under study. She has extensive experience in combining animal models with patient population data, which serves as critical validation tools in the preclinical space. She is also leading the bioinformatic/computational efforts in several of our academic and industry collaborative projects nationally and internationally.