principal investigator

Smiling woman with short dark hair wearing a teal textured top, standing indoors near a railing with a brick wall and large window in the background.

Priya Prakash, PhD

p.prakash@stonybrook.edu | Faculty profile

Priya grew up in Bengaluru, India, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology before moving to the United States to pursue graduate studies. She completed her PhD in Chemistry at Purdue University with Gaurav Chopra, where she was an Eli Lilly-Stark Neurosciences Predoctoral Research Fellow. Her doctoral work combined chemistry and neuroscience to investigate how toxic amyloid-β alters microglial function, leading to the discovery of a lipid droplet-mediated mechanism that impairs microglial activity in Alzheimer’s disease.

For her postdoctoral training, Priya worked with Shane Liddelow at the Institute for Translational Neuroscience at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where she was a Leon Levy Neuroscience Fellow. There, she expanded her research to investigate the roles of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in neurodegenerative disease, identifying myelin dysregulation as a key feature of a rare movement disorder X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism.

Priya's research seeks to understand how glial lipid biology supports brain health and how disruption of lipid pathways contributes to neurodegenerative disease.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

2021-2027 Postdoctoral Fellow Neuroscience
Institute for Translational Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY
‍ ‍Advisor: Shane A. Liddelow
2015-2021 PhD Chemistry‍ ‍
Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Science (PULSe) Graduate Program
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
‍ ‍ Advisor: Gaurav Chopra
2013-2015 MS Biology
Purdue University, Hammond, IN
2009-2013 BE Biotechnology
PES University, Bengaluru, India

HONORS AND AWARDS

2026 Outstanding Postdoc Award, NYU Langone Health
2025-2028 Alzheimer’s Association International Research Grant, Alzheimer’s Association
2022-2024 Leon Levy Fellowship in Neuroscience, Leon Levy Foundation 
2020-2021 Eli Lilly-Stark Neurosciences Predoctoral Research Fellowship in Neurodegeneration,
Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute
2021 PULSe Outstanding Graduate Student in Research Award, Purdue University
2021 Melvin Guy Mellon Award in Analytical Chemistry, Purdue University
2021 Linda and Jack Gill Graduate Student Award (Honorable mention), Indiana University Bloomington
2019 Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award, Purdue University
2018 Young Investigator Award, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
2015 Graduate Research Award, Purdue University