Ravi Parhar

Thesis title: Multiomic Analysis of the Hepatic Fibrotic Niche to Define New Therapeutic Targets for Liver Scarring

Precision Medicine DTP

Year of study: 3

  • Centre for Inflammation Research
  • Institute for Regeneration and Repair
  • Edinburgh Medical School: Clinical Sciences

Contact details

PhD supervisors:

Address

Street

Little France Crescent
Centre for Inflammation Research
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
Edinburgh BioQuarter

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH16 4TJ

Biography

Background

Ravi graduated from Imperial College London (2021, 1st Class honours) with a focus in Cancer Biology.  During his studies he secured a placement year position at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA) where he investigated the role of an RNA-binding protein on the development and subsequent progression of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).  

Current research interests

Liver disease accounts for an estimated 2 million deaths per year globally. One feature of advanced liver disease is liver scarring (fibrosis), which is associated with poor clinical outcome. There are, at present, no effective anti-fibrotic therapies highlighting an important need to develop novel therapeutic strategies. Recent work in the Ramachandran lab has used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to identify a pathogenic subpopulation of cells in the liver which reside in a distinct spatial environment, named the fibrotic niche. Discovery of this fibrotic niche provides an opportunity to target the more diseased areas of tissue without perturbing non-diseased regions. However, the cellular composition and cell-to-cell interactions within the fibrotic niche has not yet been assessed. In his PhD studies, Ravi aims to integrate spatial transcriptomic and scRNA-seq data using bioinformatics tools to define the cellular and molecular composition of the niche. Molecules of interest will be manipulated using a combination of genetic approaches and in vitro cell culture models to identify potential therapeutic targets for liver scarring.
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