Sushmita is interested in discovering genetic mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. She received her B.S. from Amity University, India in 2016. After finishing her undergraduate studies, she worked at a diagnostic lab to detect causative mutants for rare genetic neurological diseases in Indian patient populations. She went on to pursue a masters in stem cell biology at the University of Minnesota in 2017 and worked in Dr. James Dutton’s lab. During her master’s thesis, she discovered a novel protocol to differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells to peripheral neurons in vitro. She worked in the industry post her masters to understand early events in neurodegenerative disease biology for drug discovery and target validation studies. Sushmita started her PhD at UMMS in 2022 and joined the Lodato lab as a Graduate Student in May 2023. She is being co-mentored with Dr Robert Brown and is interested in studying somatic mutations in neurodegeneration.