Dr Lakshman Varanasi is deeply invested in research in the detection and management of catastrophic lifestyle diseases such as cancer. His work has included basic and translational cancer research, and has centred on the early diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers. Over the course of this work, his interests have evolved to include the gamut of disciplines that constitute precision medicine.

He is also engaged with industry to provide scientific expertise and depth for the development of biomedical systems, for the delivery and management of healthcare, such as in the use of electronic health information in prediction/ diagnosis (Healthkon). Most recently, he has helped communicate stem-cell research, services, and products to the general public (Transcell Oncologics).

Dr Varanasi holds an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Osmania University (2002), Master’s in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (2004) and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA (2010), where he worked on the mutational analysis of respiratory proteins in the bacterial model. Subsequently, he conducted post-doctoral research in Dr Luis Martinez’s lab at UMMC, on the basic biology of DNA damage and repair in cancer cells. The work was a prelude to his work on cancer; his interest in protein analysis led him to studies on chemically modified proteins in the blood, as evidence for the presence of cancers of the gut, at the Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Olomouc, in the Czech Republic.

His interest in health extends into his life in the workplace and outside it, and he is interested in writing, photography, yoga, and cycling.

Dr Varanasi’s research so far has focused on the study of DNA damage and repair in cancer cells (Phi et al, 2012, Cell Cycle), and more recently, on the identification and use of certain proteins in the bloodstream for the purpose of identification of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. These proteins are called biomarkers, and can enable the early diagnosis of certain cancers during a screening process. He has mentored doctoral, and bachelor’s level students in the work involved in these projects.

Dr Varanasi’s work has led to his interest in human health, and he continues this interest into his work at Krea. His work research centres around the influence of diet, lifestyle, and environment on the gut and respiratory microbiome and indirectly on human health. The microbiome is a collective of all the microbes that reside in a “niche” in the human body; the microbiomes of the body together have more microbes than the body has cells. They microbes subsist on nutrients that the host supplies, and appear to affect human health in myriad ways. Specifically, Dr Varanasi’s work will involve the investigation of the microbiome’s secretions into the human system and their physiological effect, and of how an imbalance in the microbial constituents causes dysbiosis and disease.

The larger questions that Dr Varanasi is interested in, and will try to address through his work at Krea, are these: What is the association between a person’s physical and mental health and the microbiome’s profile and chemicals it secretes? Is the microbiome of the gut an accurate index of an individual’s health? Can the chemicals secreted be collectively considered a reliable surrogate for a healthy, or dysbiotic, microbiome?