Meet Tejas
Tejas Athni is an undergraduate student at Stanford University, originally from Macon, Georgia.
Currently, he is a student researcher in the Mordecai Lab (Department of Biology, Stanford), where he investigates the global distributions and environmental drivers of disease-vectoring mosquitoes using computational epidemiology and machine learning tools. Tejas is also a member of the Rohatgi Lab (Department of Biochemistry, Stanford), where he has worked with a team investigating cell signaling pathways to help elucidate a new biochemical mechanism regulating heart development.
Tejas has been published in various peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Developmental Cell and Ecology Letters. He has been recognized with numerous national and international awards, including the Goldwater Scholarship, the Coca-Cola Scholarship, the Neuroscience Research Prize from the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Statistical Association Award from the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. He has presented and discussed his research at various conferences, pharmaceutical companies, and public speaking venues such as TEDxPeachtree.
Tejas is also a volunteer EMT with Santa Clara County, CA and an officer and director for Stanford EMS. He is a co-founder of Perfusion, a CPR education and legislative advocacy organization dedicated to providing emergency medical training to students from low-resource regions of the Bay Area. In his free time, Tejas enjoys competing on Stanford’s club ultimate frisbee team.
Previously, Tejas has been involved with plant biology and neuro-oncology research at Fort Valley State University (Fort Valley, GA) and Karmanos Cancer Institute (Detroit, MI). He was a member of a research team investigating phytochemicals as possible treatment options for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain cancer, has worked to identify the palynological reasons why two medicinal plants are approaching extinction, and has co-instructed student research programs for the United States Department of Agriculture.
Research
The influence of vector-borne disease on human history: socio-ecological mechanisms
Ecology Letters, vol. 24(4), pp. 829-846
Athni TS, Shocket MS, Couper LI, Nova N, Caldwell IR, Caldwell JM, Childress JN, Childs ML, De Leo GA, Kirk DG, MacDonald AJ, Olivarius K, Pickel DG, Roberts SO, Winokur OC, Young HS, Cheng J, Grant EA, Kurzner PM, Kyaw S, Lin BJ, Lopez RC, Massihpour DS, Olsen EC, Roache M, Ruiz A, Schultz EA, Shafat M, Spencer RL, Bharti N, Mordecai EA
January 2021
DOI: 10.1111/ele.13675
A Membrane-Tethered Ubiquitination Pathway Regulates Hedgehog Signaling and Heart Development
Developmental Cell, vol. 55(4), pp. 432-449
Kong JH, Young CB, Pusapati GV, Patel CB, Ho S, Krishnan A, Lin JH, Devine W, de Bellaing AM, Athni TS, Aravind L, Gunn TM, Lo CW, Rohatgi R
November 2020
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.08.012
Reproductive Biology of a Threatened Medicinal Herb Scutellaria ocmulgee Small from Georgia
In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Animal, vol. 54, p. S43
Vaidya BN, Athni T, Shreepathi V, Joshee N
June 2018
DOI: 10.1007/s11626-018-0251-9
Inhibiting the Proliferation of Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Cells and U-87 MG Cell Line Using Leaf Extract of Bacopa monnieri
Neurotherapeutics, vol. 14, pp. 811-812
Athni T, Vaidya BN, Joshee N, Parajuli P
July 2017
DOI: 10.1007/s13311-017-0543-x
The Evolution of Modern Medicine: From Garden to Pill Box
Medicinal Plants (Springer), Chapter 1, pp. 1-16
Athni TS, Athni SS
November 2019
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-31269-5_1
Inhibiting the Proliferation of Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Cells and U-87 MG Cell Line Using Leaf Extract of Bacopa monnieri
| Year | Month | Location | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | June | San Diego, CA | Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) - International Convention |
| 2017 | May | Atlanta, GA | Arbor Pharmaceuticals & Georgia BioEd Institute |
| 2017 | April | Boston, MA | American Academy of Neurology (AAN) - 69th Annual Meeting |
| 2017 | March | Rockville, MD | American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) - 19th Annual Meeting |
Palynological Evaluation and Pollination Biology of Scutellaria ocmulgee, A Threatened Medicinal Plant from Middle Georgia
| Year | Month | Location | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | June | St. Louis, MO | Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) - Annual Meeting |
| 2017 | February | Atlanta, GA | Association of Research Directors (ARD) - Annual Symposium |
