PhD student Akanksha Sachan has been awarded the Diana Jacobs Kalman/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging. This scholarship from the American Federation for Aging Research gives students enrolled in MD, DO or PhD programs the opportunity to conduct a 12-month research project focused on biomedical research in aging. 

Sachan, a fourth-year student in the Joint Carnegie Mellon-University of Pittsburgh PhD Program in Computational Biology (CPCB), was one of 10 students selected for a scholarship nationwide. 

In a collaborative effort with her principal investigators, Aditi Gurkar and Jishnu Das, this scholarship will support Sachan’s work in building machine learning methods to interpret cellular dynamics and reprogramming. By developing multi-omics ML models for deciphering metabolic and epigenetic interactions, she hopes to learn more about how cells are aging at different points in time. 

“This is my first scholarship in the PhD program, and it really gave me confidence that our approach towards this interdisciplinary field is valuable,” Sachan said. 

Research on aging has never been more vital, as the U.S. population undergoes a demographic shift. It is estimated that 20% of the population will be 65 years of age and older by 2030. Research in the biology of aging can lead to advances that improve health span and delay the diseases of aging 

Sachan, whose undergraduate degree is in chemical engineering, was drawn to computational biology because she wanted to apply her quantitative background to understand the fundamental principles that govern biological systems. 

“I am super excited about this field, and I feel very motivated to work towards understanding gene regulation,” Sachan said. After graduation, she hopes to become an independent researcher in academia and continue investigating the biology of aging. 

Learn more about the Diana Jacobs Kalman/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging.