National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) Archives

Ananya Kamalakannan

Ananya Kamalakannan is a 2026 graduate from the Ohio State University, where she earned her BS in systems and behavioral neuroscience, with minors in medical humanities and global public health. Her academic and professional work centers on mental health equity, medical education, and the social determinants of health. As part of her honors undergraduate thesis, she conducted research on mental health trends among medical students by analyzing national datasets to investigate disparities in various mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use, self-injurious behaviors, and suicidality.

Beyond research, Ananya is deeply involved in community engagement and student leadership. She was a Morrill Scholar at Ohio State and a recipient of the Kaplan Humanitarian Award, accolades that reflected her sustained leadership skills across civic and cultural organizations. She has also served as the president of Global Medical Brigades (a student-led volunteer organization that implements sustainable health systems), Red Saree (a nonprofit focused on health equity and awareness), and Tamil Sangam (a cultural outfit that preserves and promotes Tamil cultural heritage). Throughout her undergraduate career, Ananya was deeply engaged with South Asian communities across both the United States and India; during this time, she led mental wellness workshops for youth through Snehalaya, an NGO supporting women and children affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS, based in Ahmednagar, India.

A classically trained Indian dancer, and visual artist, Ananya is passionate about fostering cross-cultural dialogue through both public health and the arts. She hopes to become a physician-researcher focused on global mental health, medical education reform, and developing culturally grounded approaches to student well-being.

Ananya’s Fulbright-Nehru project involves a mixed-methods study examining the mental health of Indian medical students hosted at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru. The project is investigating how academic pressures and structural inequalities shape student mental health outcomes and treatment utilization. Drawing on her epidemiological research at Ohio State, Ananya is adapting validated survey instruments to the Indian context and conducting qualitative interviews with the students and faculty. She hopes to translate the findings into culturally grounded policy recommendations to improve institutional support systems and foster a generation of medical providers who embrace mental health as a priority.

Trisha Gongalore

Trisha Gongalore is a dedicated multidisciplinary scholar who recently completed her BA in neuroscience from Pomona College, where she engaged deeply with coursework spanning neurobiology, biochemistry, genetics, and public health. Her academic and research interests lie at the intersection of molecular neuroscience, neurodegeneration, and health equity, with a specific focus on Parkinson’s Disease (PD). She has conducted research across five laboratories, mastering techniques such as electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular cloning. Notably, she has investigated alpha-synuclein aggregation in fruit flies, heteroplasmy in mouse myoblasts, and cholinergic signaling in C. elegans. Her work has been shared at the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders and the Genetics Society of America’s 66th Drosophila Research Conference. A paper that she co-authored is currently under review to be published in peer-reviewed journals like Developmental Biology.

Trisha’s commitment to health equity is embodied by her leadership in the student-run organization, Health Bridges, at the Draper Center for Community Partnerships in Pomona College, where she organized health fairs and gathered and analyzed uniquely disaggregated data for the Tongan American populations in the Inland Empire. She has also studied abroad in Argentina, where she learned about public health issues on an international scale and worked with dementia patients to explore the benefits of community-based, non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Trisha’s Fulbright-Nehru research at NIMHANS under Dr. Indrani Datta is investigating the mechanism behind exosome-mediated delivery of a neuroprotective drug to midbrain organoids derived from sporadic PD patients in India. Addressing the limitations of current PD therapies, the treatment aims to reduce oxidative stress and support neuronal regeneration using mesenchymal stromal cell-derived exosomes that cross the blood-brain barrier. Leveraging NIMHANS’ expertise in the LRRK2-I1371V mutation, more common in the Eastern Hemisphere PD populations, Trisha is evaluating treatment efficacy through advanced imaging, electrophysiology, and biochemical assays. The study aims to develop more effective, non-invasive therapeutic approaches tailored for the PD population in India.

Anjali Brown

Anjali Brown is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a BA in philosophy while completing a rigorous pre-medical curriculum. A multiple-year James B. Angell Scholar, Anjali pairs humanistic inquiry with empirical research to address global mental health inequities. At Michigan Medicine, she worked under Dr. Maria Muzik on the NIH-funded prenatal stress and postpartum studies, performing EEG acquisition, clinical intakes, and longitudinal data analysis on mother–infant dyads. Previously, she had co-led a 3,000-participant wearable-sensor study of resident physicians in the Sen Lab to produce actionable insights into disability and burnout in medical training.

Beyond the laboratory, Anjali directs evidence-based service initiatives. As a peer counselor, she delivers one-on-one psychological support to fellow students, and as the volunteer team lead for Michigan Medicine’s Hospital Elder Life Program, she trains volunteers and designs engagement protocols that reduce delirium and isolation in older inpatients. She has also co-developed a biodegradable menstrual pad for women in rural Peru. Anjali has won top honors at the Center for Global Health Equity pitch competition and has authored an illustrated menstrual-health guide for girls at the Chinmaya Vijaya Orphanage, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Anjali aspires to become a psychiatrist-researcher who integrates culturally responsive clinical practice with policy-relevant scholarship to advance maternal mental health worldwide.

Anjali’s Fulbright-Nehru project is investigating how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions in urban India during five years of the postpartum period. Working with Dr. Prabha Chandra at NIMHANS, she is coding and statistically analyzing 300 video recordings from the Bangalore Child Health and Development Study to illuminate how maternal depression shapes mother–child interactions. She is also holding caregiver interviews to supply the sociocultural context. In parallel, she is conducting a systematic study on adolescent perinatal mental health and the impact of neighborhood violence during pregnancy in order to identify policy gaps. Her findings will inform culturally attuned interventions that strengthen community-based maternal mental health services in low-resource settings.