Our Team

Lata Balakrishnan studied at the University of Mumbai, India and earned her Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2000, followed by her Master of Science degree in Biochemistry in 2002. Lata received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of North Dakota in 2007. She trained as a molecular virologist with Dr. Barry Milavetz and her Ph.D. thesis was focused on understanding epigenetic modifications during transcription, using Simian Virus 40 (SV40) as a model system. For her post-doctoral work she joined the laboratory of Dr. Robert Bambara and studied the enzymatic mechanisms involved in DNA replication, specifically Okazaki fragment maturation and the accompanying repair processes. She was awarded the NIH Pathway to Independence Career Development (K99/R00) award from National Institutes of General Medicine in 2012. She joined the Department of Biology at IUPUI in fall 2014.