September 24, 2025
LA JOLLA—Deepshika Ramanan, PhD, a scientist and assistant professor at the Salk Institute, has been awarded a New Innovators Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The five-year, $1.5 million grant will support Ramanan’s pioneering research on maternal immunity during pregnancy and lactation.
The NIAID New Innovators Award recognizes early-career investigators pursuing creative and innovative lines of research. Ramanan, a member of Salk’s NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis, is using advanced multi-omics approaches to study the immune changes that occur during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding has known benefits for infant development and immunity. It can also reduce maternal risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. But because women’s health has been historically understudied, we still don’t understand the science behind many of these benefits.
Ramanan is working to change that. Her research is advancing our understanding of how maternal immune changes during pregnancy and breastfeeding can shape long-term health outcomes for both mother and child. Her discoveries could help explain the advantages of breastfeeding, prompt new solutions for mothers unable to breastfeed, and inform dietary decisions to enhance breast milk production and quality.
“Shika’s work exemplifies the bold, boundary-breaking science that Salk is known for,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD. “Her studies on maternal immunity and breastfeeding are opening a window into an underexplored aspect of human health, and we are glad to see her contributions recognized with this highly competitive award.”
The award will fund a new project that builds on the lab’s recent discovery that immune cells called T cells move from the gut to the mammary glands during pregnancy and breastfeeding. By probing the function of these specialized immune cells, Ramanan aims to shed light on how the immune system safeguards both maternal health and the transfer of protective immunity to infants.
Ramanan joined Salk in 2022 and has quickly established her lab as a leader in maternal immunology. Her previous awards include the Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award, the V Scholar Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Damon Runyon Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award, and the STAT Wunderkind Award.
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