Aakanksha Jain, PhD
Principal Investigator
ajain90@uw.edu
Aakanksha grew up in the beautiful city of Jaipur, India, and earned a Bachelor of Technology from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. She moved to the United States to pursue a PhD in Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the lab of Dr. Chandrashekhar Pasare, where she studied innate and adaptive immune cross-talk in autoimmunity. Her work described how autoreactive T cells can instruct myeloid cell activation revealing the mechanism that triggers sterile inflammation and autoimmune pathology. She then joined Dr. Clifford Woolf’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to understand how immune ligands regulate pain, a key symptom of many inflammatory diseases. Aakanksha started her lab at the University of Washington in July 2025 and she is excited to continue deciphering the neuroimmune cross-talk of pain and inflammation with the support of K99/R00 HEAL Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral-to-Independent Career Transition Award.
Outside the lab, Aakanksha enjoys spending time with her daughter and exploring the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest.
Christina Gao
Research Scientist
czgao@uw.edu
Christina graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology and Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. In the Jain Lab, she leads the behavioral experiment efforts. Outside the lab, Christina enjoys visiting parks and cooking.
Alex Koriath
Research Scientist
akoriath@uw.edu
Alex was born and raised in the PNW and attended the University of Washington where she graduated with a BS and MS in Bioengineering. After a stint in industry, Alex joined the Jain Lab at the end of 2025 bringing her expertise in bioinformatics, single-cell omics and fluorescent microscopy. Currently, Alex is working on mapping the immune transcriptome of human and mouse peripheral nerves.
In her free time, Alex enjoys getting out in nature, reading, doing fiber arts and fostering cats. She's also the Co-President of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild!
