Ajay Pradhan
Title: Associate Senior Lecturer School/office: School of Science and Technology
Email:
Phone: +46 19 303735
Room: P2313a
About Ajay Pradhan
Ajay Pradhan is an Associate Senior Lecturer at the School of Science and Technology. Dr. Pradhan has a background in Biotechnology from both Bachelor and Master levels. He performed his doctoral studies at Örebro University and Post-doctoral studies at the University of Southern California.
Research
Ajay Pradhans research focuses on understanding how the male and female brains develop to show sex specific differences. Brain sex differentiation is a complex yet fascinating research area. Sex differences in the brain not only regulate reproductive functions, but also impacts cognitive abilities and susceptibility to neurological diseases. In his research, Dr. Pradhan tries to understand how steroid hormones and genes are involved in the regulation of brain sex differentiation. Different tools including CRISPR/Cas9, transcriptomics, proteomics, behaviour and imaging are used to understand the enigma of brain sex differentiation. Model systems including zebrafish, primary neuronal cultures and cell lines are used in his research.
Apart from understanding brain sex differentiation, Dr. Pradhan is also involved in understanding the impact of pollutants on the health and physiology of living organisms. The increase in environmental pollution has resulted in the emergence of several health related problems. Pollution has been suggested to have a positive correlation with the increasing cases of neurological diseases, obesity and infertility. However, it is not clearly understood how pollutants such as plasticizers trigger different diseases. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of action of different pollutants in the onset of neurological, metabolism and reproductive defects.
Teaching
Dr. Pradhan is actively involved in teaching activities and course co-ordination in biology courses. His teaching area includes Molecular biology, Genetics, Toxicology and Developmental Biology. He teaches students from different academic levels such as masters, bachelors and high school.