Discovery Month: Student Researcher Kritika Santhanam

Kritika Santhanam ’25’s (CLAS) research activities began early in her tenure at UConn.

During her junior year, Santhanam approached Caroline Deeley, a professor of orthodontics, about working in her lab.

Santhanam spent her first and second years in Diley’s lab, which researches treatments for osteoarthritis.

“Osteoarthritis is a condition in which spontaneous degeneration of cartilage cells occurs, which affects our joints,” says Santhanam.

There is currently no cure for osteoarthritis. That’s why Dealey’s lab is working to find a way to spontaneously regenerate cartilage cells. Santhanam found that when certain BMP ligands (a type of molecule) were removed from mouse models, something caused the cartilage cells in their knees to regenerate.

Santhanam had the opportunity to present her findings at the 16th International Conference on Limb Development, Regeneration and Evolution and the New England Science Symposium at Harvard University.

“The amount of skills I gained, the confidence I gained from this opportunity my freshman year,” Santhanam said. “I was able to talk to professional scientists in the field, which was amazing.”

Having identified a new population of cells in mouse cartilage samples, Santhanam continued her work with Deely through SURF (Undergraduate Summer Research) Award. After receiving the SURF Award, Santhanam dug deeper to determine what was causing the regeneration she observed in the final phase of her project.

“My project proposal was to find out what properties these new cells have,” Santhanam says. “Because we have no idea what type of cartilage cells they are, what allows them to regenerate, what stage of chondrocyte maturation are they at?”

After a long process of trial and error, Santhanam discovered that the cells matched a tag called RUNX2, which is associated with bone cell differentiation.

Santhanam is currently working with Fumilayo Showers, assistant professor of sociology and Africana studies, on a project that looks at healthcare workers on and off the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspective of how healthcare has had to change during the time of the pandemic and what we should do. can learn from an emergency.

Santhanam is also currently completing a documentary project on disability rights in South India, which she did through Brave scientists program.

Santhanam’s minor in health policy and racial disparities allowed her to take classes in a wide range of subjects, including women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and human development and family sciences. In these classes, she learned about harmful patient-provider interactions where people with disabilities do not feel heard or have no access to health care facilities at all.

“It was interesting to me because I feel like when we talk about the intersection of race and class and gender and all these things, sometimes we don’t think about disability as one of the social determinants of health,” Santhanam says.

Santhanam traveled to her parents’ home in Chennai, India, to interview people working there to advocate for disability rights.

“The differences and cultural biases that I see when I go back are actually something that is not talked about much,” Santhanam says. “I know people with disabilities in India and I know what makes this difference different and I really want people to know that and I also want people to know about the positive strides that have been made over the last 20 years.”

Santhanam interviewed doctors and people involved in human rights groups, including Dr. Aishwarya Rao, pediatrician, disability rights activist and founder Better World Shelter, rehabilitation shelter for women with disabilities; Sharada Devi, Associate Professor at the Institute of English Language, University of Kerala; and KVJ Sumitra Prasad, founder of the SAI Center, which promotes the importance of independent living for adults with disabilities through the DORAI Foundation.

Santhanam will screen his documentary at UC Storrs in January.

Santhanam plans to attend medical school after graduation with the long-term goal of opening a clinic focused on women’s health.

During her sophomore year, Santhanam participated in UConn’s Health Leaders program, where she screened patients for social determinants of health. She quickly realized that in Connecticut there were huge disparities in people’s ability to access health care, such as healthy food and transportation that supported well-being.

“The experience was truly an eye-opener,” Santhanam says. “Doing this program really made me feel like this was my calling and really made me want to see what internal medicine was all about. In my opinion, I believe that primary care is the first and most important place where you can make an impact on a person’s health.”