Our Team

[Su-pruh-jaa Va-rah-dah-rah-jan]

Principal Investigator

supraja.varadarajan@utsouthwestern.edu
I’ve been enthusiastic and curious about Biology for as long as I can remember. I was born and raised in Bangalore, India, and I moved to the US to pursue a Masters in Biomedical Engineering. I ended up falling in love with neuroscience and more specifically with axons. I earned my PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA in Samantha Butler’s lab, where I studied axon guidance in the developing spinal cord. Wanting to apply these developmental principles to rebuilding neural circuits, I joined Andrew Huberman’s lab at Stanford for my postdoc, where I focused on understanding the role of neural activity in promoting axon regeneration in the visual system.
Scientific Interests: I joined the Department of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern in Jan 2024. Our lab continues to identify mechanisms that promote visual repair, with a specific focus on axon regeneration and reconnectivity.
Life outside the lab: Spending time with my two sons and husband, baking, reading, puzzle-solving

Research Assistant

houda.chamseddine@utsouthwestern.edu
I am a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington where I completed a master’s in health psychology/neuroscience. During my time in graduate school, my primary focus was on understanding potential neuroendocrine factors that mediate sex differences in opioid withdrawal. I was specifically interested in ovarian hormones and their influence on opioid addiction. February 2024, I joined the Varadarajan lab as a research assistant and am excited to learn new techniques and be part of the team!
Life outside the lab: My interests outside of the lab include drawing, visiting art museums, and geocaching.