Gayathri obtained her Ph.D. from the Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland, working on intracellular signaling mechanisms of the nervous system. She extended her work as a postdoctoral fellow in collaboration with Biozentrum, Basel in understanding of the role of Src-family kinases and lipid rafts during postsynaptic stabilization at the neuromuscular junctions.  She also has research experience in the area of cognition and neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s.

After her academic work, Gayathri moved into drug discovery and development, where she worked on multiple therapeutic areas like metabolic syndrome, endocrinology, cancer and inflammation. Her focus was to discover and develop small molecules that can be commercialized as drugs for diseases with unmet medical need. During her industrial tenure she was actively involved as a program leader in identifying disease targets, establishing in vitro biology platforms for hit to lead identification and coordinating pre-clinical activities required for lead optimization and candidate selection. Her significant contribution has led to the rapid progress through the discovery pipeline into clinical development of a best-in-class 2nd generation “Precision Calcimimetic” for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Primary Hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

At CCBT, Gayathri leads the high-throughput screening and cell biology efforts, developing assay cascades for the validation of target engagement and selectivity. Potent, selective chemical tools that integrate approaches from biochemistry and cellular imaging are further studied to dissect complex biological mechanisms underlying human diseases.