Dharani Moorthy graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in molecular and cellular biology in May 2026. His academic and research interests center on infectious disease, diagnostic innovation, and expanding healthcare access for underserved communities. Dharani is a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award, one of only 20 undergraduates selected for this competitive funding. At the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, he investigates novel virulence factors in Trypanosoma cruzi and their regulatory mechanisms, using RNA sequencing, bisulfite sequencing, and mouse models to evaluate cardiomyopathy and infection dynamics in cardiomyocytes.
Beyond the lab, Dharani serves as a Hopkins Community Connection Triage Coordinator at Bayview Medical Center. He also writes accessible guides for bmorebenefits.com to help Maryland residents navigate government assistance programs. His research has been published in Nature, Operative Neurosurgery, and the Journal of Epidemiology and Population Health, with his Nature contribution focusing on antigen diversification in Trypanosoma brucei. Outside of research, Dharani is a certified EMT, a head teaching assistant in cognitive science, and a senior staff writer for the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, where he covers Baltimore’s local food scene.
Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, infects over 30 percent of India’s population and can lead to brain inflammation, blindness, and severe outcomes in pregnant and immunocompromised individuals. Current diagnostics often fail to distinguish active infection from past exposure or convey disease severity. For his Fulbright-Nehru project at the Indian Institute of Science Parasite Epigenetics Lab under Dr. Meetali Singh, Dharani is investigating how microRNAs, small molecules that regulate gene activity, change during T. gondii infection in human blood samples. By identifying those miRNAs linked to disease and severity, mapping their target pathways, and testing them in human cell lines, his project aims to lay the groundwork for earlier, more accurate diagnostics and therapies.