Auinash (Nash) Kalsotra is a professor and Willam C. Rose Scholar of Biochemistry in the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also is an adjunct professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cancer Center@Illinois, and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. 
Kalsotra is a Chan Zuckerburg Biohub Chicago investigator, a Beckman Institute fellow, and an associate editor of the WIREs RNA journal (Wiley).
He received his undergraduate degree in pharmacy from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (1999). While earning his PhD at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, he was a Harry S. and Isabel Cameron doctoral fellow and studied the role of cytochromes P450 in the progression and resolution of inflammation. During his postdoctoral work as a Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation fellow and an American Heart Association young investigator at Baylor College of Medicine, he began his studies on post-transcriptional gene regulation and RNA biology in human health and disease. Kalsotra started his independent research group in 2013.
He teaches MCB 354: The Biochemical and Physical Basis of Life, a course with large enrolments of over more than 400 students each academic yera. As a junior faculty mentor and advisor, he provides guidance and support to pre-tenured faculty in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
As an active member of the RNA Society, Kalsotra has organized/chaired scientific sessions at various national and international meetings. He also serves as an expert reviewer for several funding agencies and journals. Additionally, as a steering committee member of the Rustbelt RNA community, he is involved in guiding RNA research in the Midwest, promoting long-term efforts to ensure the viability of the annual RRM conference, and fostering the professional development of students from smaller universities and predominantly undergraduate institutions.
Research interests
Kalsotra’s research interests are to uncover the biological function(s) of RNA in tissue development, regeneration, and disease. He is particularly interested in understanding:

how various RNA processing mechanisms integrate with transcriptional, translational, and metabolic programs to ensure normal tissue growth and function,
why misregulation of these mechanisms results in disease, and
whether they can be leveraged to prevent or reverse particular human disorders.

Recent work from the Kalsotra laboratory has resulted in many high-profile publications, e.g., Genes & Dev., J. Exp. Med, Genome Res., Dev. Cell, J. Clin. Invest., PNAS, Nature Struct. Mol. Biol., eLife, and Nature Commun. He has also published invited articles, including perspectives and opinions in Nature Reviews, Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev., Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. Kalsotra is regularly invited to present his research findings at major conferences, universities, and research centers. His research activities have been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, March of Dimes, and American Heart Association.
 
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