After Akansha’s undergraduate research experiences and postbaccalaureate research training at the National Institutes of Health, she was convinced that she wanted to pursue graduate school. Akansha started a dual MD-PhD degree in hopes of developing a career in academic medicine so she can combine her clinical interests with basic science research to help future patients with diseases that do not currently have cures. 

Akansha’s work describes a patient with impairment in coordinated ciliary beating and directional mucociliary transport in their epithelial cells. These data demonstrate that this patient has PCD despite having no variants in gene known to cause PCD. The patient now understands their disease and can avoid harmful procedures & treatments. 

Through her graduate school training, Akansha hopes to make discoveries that are directly connected from bedside to bench and vice versa. She strives to continue making discoveries to help increase diagnosis of this rare disease so patient with PCD can know their disease and it can be managed with current therapies. 

Akansha enjoys creating her own art, specifically using the mediums scratchboard and printmaking. Her interest in art prompted her to lead multiple health science art shows for graduate students at the University of Iowa to showcase their art. In addition, Akansha enjoys the outdoors and going on hikes at different local Iowa parks, cheering on the Iowa women’s basketball team, and collecting houseplants.