About Dr. Kota

Dr. Kota grew up in rural India helping his parents on a farm. Since his childhood, he has had a passion for Biology and applying that knowledge to improve human lives. Turning his dreams into reality, he earned his BS in Agriculture and PhD in Seed Science from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in New Delhi. As a graduate student, he investigated the genetic and biochemical aspects of seed dormancy to reduce pre- & post-harvest crop losses. After his graduation, he moved to the US and spent about a year in plant sciences before switching his career path to the biomedical sciences to explore his passion and commitment in understanding the fundamental aspects of human disease and developing novel therapies.

Dr. Kota joined Dr. Jerry Mendell's laboratory for post-doctoral training at the Center for Gene Therapy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and made outstanding contributions to translational gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases and basic cancer biology. His non-human primate work on AAV-follistatin muscle building strategy (Kota et al, 2009, Science Translational Medicine) in combination with prior findings from Drs. Kaspar & Dr. Mendell's teams led to Phase I/II clinical trials in two muscular dystrophy patient populations. His second area of work in micro-RNA (miRNA) cancer biology, in collaboration with Dr. Joshua Mandell (Kota et al., 2009 Cell), led him to his path in independent research.

Dr. Kota joined the Medical and Molecular Genetics faculty at the Indiana University School of Medicine with a major research focus on understanding the fundamental mechanistic role of miR-29 in the pancreatic cancer tumor microenvironment. He is currently also a member of the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center - Tumor Microenvironment and Pancreatic Cancer working groups and Associate Director of Molecular Testing at the Indiana University Vector Production Facility. He is an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.