• Welcome to the Lakkaraju Lab!

    Investigating mechanisms and developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases

    Lab group photo 2023 front page CROP
  • Calling Creative Scientists!

    Click to learn about our open positions!

    LakkarajuLabRecruitmentFlyer_Nov22

April 2025
• Valencia Fernandes is awarded the Helen Juanita Reed postdoctoral fellowship from the BrightFocus Foundation! Congratulations, Valencia!

• Barry Nguyen gives a talk on his exciting data at the 2025 Ophthalmology Research Day. Great job, Barry!
 
March 2025
• Yao Tong is awarded the 2025 Career Starter Grant from the Knight’s Templar Eye Foundation. Congratulations, Yao!!
 
November 2024
• Samir Ranjan Panda joins the lab as our newest postdoc. Welcome, Samir!!
 
October 2024
• Sydney and Aparna give talks at the Biennial ISER meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• Colin is off on his next adventure – a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA. Congratulations and all the best, Colin!

Read more >>

Welcome to the Lakkaraju Laboratory!

The Lakkaraju lab is a diverse group of multidisciplinary scientists dedicated to developing effective therapies for highly prevalent neurodegenerative diseases. We use the retina as a model to interrogate pathological mechanisms and identify therapeutic targets for diseases that compromise vision and cognition – critical functions that define our humanity and determine how we relate to the world around us.

Using cell-based and mouse models and multidisciplinary approaches ranging from genetics, bioinformatics, and advanced imaging, we have recently identified powerful drugs that prevent vision loss, which are currently in clinical development. Explore the Research and Publications pages or reach out to us if you would like to learn more about what we do!

We value pluralism, foster creativity, and are passionate about mentoring across the pipeline.

 

Super-resolution live-cell imaging of interactions between mitochondria (green) and lysosomes (yellow).
 

3D reconstruction of phagosome
Microglia reconstruction

 

April 2025
• Valencia Fernandes is awarded the Helen Juanita Reed postdoctoral fellowship from the BrightFocus Foundation! Congratulations, Valencia!

• Barry Nguyen gives a talk on his exciting data at the 2025 Ophthalmology Research Day. Great job, Barry!
 
March 2025
• Yao Tong is awarded the 2025 Career Starter Grant from the Knight’s Templar Eye Foundation. Congratulations, Yao!!
 
November 2024
• Samir Ranjan Panda joins the lab as our newest postdoc. Welcome, Samir!!
 
October 2024
• Sydney and Aparna give talks at the Biennial ISER meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• Colin is off on his next adventure – a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA. Congratulations and all the best, Colin!

Read more >>