Current Scholars

Madhurya Amirapu

Madhurya Amirapu
Madhurya Amirapu, a student at Basaveshwara Medical College, just spent 3 months doing a research elective with Dr. Jeff Tornheim at CCGHE. Learn more about her experience!

Amrita Gill

Pune, India
Amrita is a Fogarty Global Health fellow and doctoral candidate at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, United States. As a part of her Fogarty fellowship, she is training at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College (BJMC)-Johns Hopkins University (JHU) clinical research site, Pune, India. Dr. Nishi Suryavanshi (BJMC-JHU CRS), Dr. Nikhil Gupte (BJMC-JHU CRS), Dr. Amita Gupta (JHU) and Dr. Katherine P Theall (Tulane University) are her mentors for her research on "Effect of Neighborhoods and Peer Networks on substance use and violence among...

Lubaina Arsiwala

Lubaina Arsiwala
Dr. Arsiwala is a Johns Hopkins Masters of Health Science student with a Bachelor in Dental Survey from DY Patil University School of Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India. She visited BJGMC from June 18, 2018, to August 11, 2018, to provide support to the BJGMC Clinical Research Site. She is working with Dr. Matthew Robinson to support to ongoing studies, including “Antimicrobial Use and Diagnosis among Hospitalized Febrile Patients in Pune, India” and “Prevalence and Risk Factors for Oral Cancer among HIV-Infected Adults.” Dr. Arsiwala received funding for...

Anita Basavaraj, MD: Gastroenterology

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Dr Anita Basavaraj has done her MBBS from Nagpur University with Honors in Surgery (1987). Thereafter she did her MD in Medicine (1990) and her Diplomat of National Board (D.N.B.) in 1992.She has done her post graduate Diploma in geriatric Medicine (P.G.D.G.M.) winning the university Gold Medal by virtue of standing first in the country (2012), which is a distant education venture run by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Dr. Vasudha Belgaumkar: Dermatology

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Dr.Vasudha has completed her undergraduate medical education from S.B.H. Government Medical College, Dhule,Maharashtra .A meritorious student throughout, she topped her first and final year University examinations. She is presently working as Associate Professor of Dermatology at B.J. Government Medical College, Pune. Having completed her post-graduation in Dermatology, Venereology (including HIV) and Leprology from this premier institute, she has acquired clinical skills as well as an affinity for research.

Puja Chebrolu

Global Health Research Fellow
Puja Chebrolu
Dr. Chebrolu is an Internal Medicine physician and a Cornell Global Health Research Fellow. She is working with Dr Jyoti Mathad and Dr Mallika Alexander at BJGMC primarily to study gestational diabetes within the PRACHITI cohort. She will be working with BJMC over the next 3 years and plans to study diabetes in other study populations as well.

Dr. Smita Deshpande: Microbiology

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
My research interests have been: Rapid diagnostic methods for Acute pyogenic meningitis, Diagnosis of enteric fever , Role of Methicillin resistance Staph aureus in infections, Molecular diagnosis of Leptospirosis, Rapid diagnosis of MDR-TB by REMA ( Resasurine Micro titre Plate Assay)and by Line Probe Assay.

Sunita Girish, PhD: Medical Biochemistry

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Education: Ph.D, Pune University, 2005 (Medical Biochemistry) title “Antioxidant Status in Leprosy.” Overview: How to improve health systems to combat various infectious diseases like Leprosy, Tuberculosis and HIV in developing countries, is a research and policy issue that affects many aspects of public health. My research interests include further to understand molecular level changes in cystic fibrosis which is under diagnosed .My interests also involve innovations in molecular techniques dealing with infectious diseases, help governments in developing countries to improve and modify drug...

Arish Hussain

Baltimore, Maryland
Arish Hussain
ELECTIVE EXPERIENCE AT CCGHE My 6 week research elective commenced in the third week of September 2019 under the mentorship of Dr. Jeff Tornheim. I began by contacting Dr. Tornheim before coming to Baltimore and reading up on his work to familiarise myself with the topics. My primary aim for this block was to learn all the components that go into the making of an accurate scientific research paper. On reaching Baltimore, I attended an orientation session to meet my peers and toured the campus. We then set the first week’s targets. The first thing Dr. Tornheim recommended was a thorough read...

Amit Kale, MS: Orthopedics

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
I am working as associate professor in orthopedics. Currently, I am conducting various drug trials for rheumatoid arthritis.

Aarti Avinash Kinikar, MD: Pediatrics

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Education: MBBS (1984); DCH (1988); MD-Paediatrics (1988), DNB-Paediatrics (2003); MRCP-UK (1995). Medical Education- Grant Medical College – Mumbai University, India.

Rahul Lokhande, MD: Pulmonary Medicine

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
He is Unit In charge at B J Government Medical college and Sassoon Hospital Pune . He has special Interest in Bronchoscopy and Respiratory Intensive Care Unit of Sassoon Hospital.

Matthew Murrill

Baltimore, Maryland
Matthew Murrill is an MD-PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2016, he was named an IDSA Education and Research Foundation Medical Scholar. After completing undergraduate studies in chemistry at Maryville College, he moved to Kolkata, India, as a Fulbright-Nehru fellow to research the sources and health effects of groundwater arsenic contamination in Eastern India with the School of Environmental Studies - Jadavpur University. He then worked for Calcutta Kids, a non-governmental organization, to establish a childhood diarrhea...

Dr. Shilpa Naik: Obstetrics and Gynecology

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
I am working as an Associate Professor & Unit Incharge since 2009 in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at B.J.Govt Medical College & Sassoon General Hospitals Pune. I have been managing High Risk Obstetrics and has keen interest in Critical Care Obstetrics.

Geeta Shrikar Pardeshi, MD: Preventive and Social Medicine

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
I have led research projects related to Reproductive and Child Health, Sanitation and Infectious diseases. As part of the BJGMC JHU Fogarty training program in HIV-TB, I have research interest in TB epidemiology. I am interested in studying the association of co-morbidities with clinical presentation and treatment outcomes in tuberculosis.

Sangita Shelke, MD: Preventive and Social Medicine; Diplomas in Nutrition, Hospital Administration, Psychological counseling

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Indeed TB is a social disease with so many social problems especially the women suffering from TB/HIV undergoes a pathetic life situation. Women are silent suffers, of both HIV and TB in male dominated society of India. My ultimate desire is if I can make a difference in the lives of these silent suffers.

Dr. Chhaya Valvi: Pediatrics

BJGMC-JHU Fogarty HIV-TB Program Trainee
Pune, India
Dr. Chhaya Valvi has completed her undergraduate and postgraduate medical education from the premier institute of Seth G.S. Medical College, Mumbai, India. She was awarded the prestigious Dr. Palekar prize as she ranked first among the candidates for M.D. exam.

Pranay Vishwanath

Baltimore, Maryland
Pranay-Vishwanath
Pranay Vishwanath is a master's candidate in the field of Bioinformatics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and anticipated to graduate in Fall 2018. He is working with Drs. Amita Gupta and Jeffrey Tornheim, and is focusing on organization of data and generation/streamlining of bioinformatic pipelines for analysis of TB drug resistance assays. He received a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in 2016.