• Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 1990
• MSc, Indian Institute of Technology, 1983

Website: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~rantia/

Research Interests: My research interests encompass a broad area of theoretical and empirical studies of the interaction between pathogens and the immune response. I use mathematical models and computer simulations in conjunction with experimental work to: understand the complex and often counter-intuitive dynamics of pathogens and immune responses in vivo; estimate important biological parameters that are not directly measurable by experimentation; and generate empirical tests of different models and hypotheses. Almost all my theoretical work is based on experiments, mostly done in collaboration with other experimental immunologists at Emory, and some done in my laboratory. Some areas I am interested in are: (i) the measurement of birth and death rates of immune cells; (ii) the generation of a theoretical framework to understand immune memory; (iii) theory and modeling to describe the dynamics of viral and bacterial infections; (iv) the use of antimicrobial agents to control infections; and (iii) the evolution of pathogens and their hosts.