Pavithra Viswanath, PhD
Research interests: magnetic resonance spectroscopy, metabolic imaging, mass spectrometry, drug discovery
Dr. Pavithra Viswanath is an associate professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF. She graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. The overall vision of her research is to harness insights from tumor genetics, epigenetics and biology to drive the preclinical development of novel, metabolic imaging biomarkers that will ultimately benefit patients by enabling the non-invasive assessment of tumor burden and response to therapy. In parallel, she will pinpoint metabolic vulnerabilities that can be exploited for the development of novel therapeutic and theranostic agents. Her long-term goal is to work with clinical and translational colleagues at UCSF and beyond to enable clinical translation of the imaging methods, therapeutics and theranostics that come out of her preclinical studies.
2000: BS, Microbiology, St. Xavier's College, Goa, India
2003: MS, Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
2007: PhD, Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
2020-present: Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, UCSF
2019: Margaret Hart Surbeck Travel Award, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, UCSF
2019: Inaugural Women in Neuro-oncology Basic/Translational Science Research Award, Society for Neuro-Oncology
2018-2019: Career Enhancement Program Award, UCSF Brain Tumor Center
2017-2018: Career Enhancement Program Award, UCSF Brain Tumor Center