Dr. Ramakrishna Vankayalapati (Krishna) is currently serving as Professor and Chair Department of Pulmonary Immunology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT), Texas and holder of the Margaret E. Byers Cain Chair for Tuberculosis Research. For the past 15 years, his career has been devoted to the study of human immunology and host interactions with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Dr. Krishna has made important contributions to our understanding of how NK cells contribute to immune defence against tuberculosis. He is currently funded by the NIH, as a Principal Investigator and has published many scientific observations in peer-reviewed journals. He is also one of the U.S. Principal Investigators of RePORT India consortium. This study will leverage the large Indo-NIH investment and TB/HIV research consortium of RePORT India, which has developed cohorts of TB cases and household contacts in India and has paired Indian investigators with U.S. investigators at 6 sites. These studies are funded by NIH and U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation.