Pranav Shibu graduated from Johns Hopkins University in May 2025 with a BS in molecular and cellular biology and public health studies. His coursework spanned molecular biology, biochemistry, cognitive neuroscience, developmental genetics, epidemiology, and qualitative research methods, thus building an interdisciplinary foundation for work at the intersection of laboratory science and community health. Currently, Pranav serves as a mid-level research technician in the Shakkottai Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he investigates KCNH3 ion channel dysfunction in spinocerebellar ataxia using patch-clamp electrophysiology, stereological analysis, and rotarod behavioral assays in mouse models. His research trajectory has spanned three additional academic laboratories: the Lloyd Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; the Berth/Lloyd Lab at Baylor College of Medicine, where he studied dynactin-related neuromuscular degeneration in drosophila; and the Farah Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
His clinical experience includes four years as a medical assistant at America First Urgent Care in Coppell, Texas, and ongoing work at the Union Gospel Mission Calvert Clinic in Dallas, where he serves an underserved homeless population.
Outside of medicine and research, Pranav competed on the Johns Hopkins NCAA men’s varsity fencing team and coaches young athletes at Go Fence Academy.
Pranav’s Fulbright-Nehru research is examining informal diabetes caregiving in rural Kerala, where India’s second-highest diabetes prevalence places disproportionate burden on family caregivers in resource-poor households. Although 80 percent of this chronic disease care occurs at home, the labor remains largely undocumented in formal healthcare planning. Based at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi and working under Dr. Renjith Bhadran, Pranav is conducting trauma-informed, semi-structured interviews with family caregivers, community health workers, and primary care providers across Ernakulam, Palakkad, and Wayanad districts. Drawing on Johns Hopkins public health training and native Malayalam-language fluency, the project will make visible the essential caregiving labor sustaining chronic disease management in resource-constrained settings.