Priyank Raj
Houston,TX
Summary
PhD student with a strong background in pharmacy and biomedical sciences, aspiring to leverage data-driven methodologies to advance healthcare research. Passionate about utilizing analytical skills to contribute to innovative solutions in the healthcare industry.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Graduate Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
05.2025 - 10.2025
- Performed research under the mentorship of Dr. Sahiti Myneni in the iSNAP team at MSBMI.
- Learned qualitative coding for sociobehavioral constructs, PROs, patient priorities etc, for a social media dataset
- Plans to use LLM and NLP to computationally scale coding and analyze the digital interactions
Research Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
08.2024 - 10.2024
- Compiled search keywords for social determinants of health (SDoH) factors to enhance an NLP model.
- Mapped section names in clinical notes to appropriate LOINC codes.
- Developed Python scripts for mapping brand names to ingredients using RxCUI.
Teaching Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
09.2023 - 05.2024
- Developed course material with the course instructor
- Created and administered quizzes
- Counseled students
- Graded assignments for a course with over 80 students
- Earned excellent feedback from students for support and accessibility in the end-of-semester survey
Research Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
09.2022 - 08.2023
- Conducted research under a professor's supervision, focusing on developing a symptom and quality-of-life self-reporting platform for cancer patients, using the REDCap application
- Selected patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs) for the platform
- Published a first-author, peer-reviewed manuscript in JAMIA Open, a highly reputed biomedical informatics journal
- Contributed to a conference publication at MEDINFO 2023 through preliminary research
- Supervised an undergraduate summer intern, helping him achieve research goals and providing mentoring for overall professional development
Research Assistant
MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
08.2016 - 03.2020
- Conducted research in behavioral neuroscience and cancer biology
- Gained experience in wet lab techniques: tissue culture, metabolomics, tissue digestion/flow cytometry, gel electrophoresis, PCR, and experimental mouse models
- Worked with animal behavior models for neuroscience studies, genetically engineered tumor mouse models, and heterotrophic mouse tumor models
- Collaborated in a world-class cancer research environment at MD Anderson Cancer Center, gaining excellent exposure
- Participated in symposiums and workshops led by highly reputed scientists and institutions
- Co-authored several publications in peer-reviewed journals, including a joint first-author article in Cancer Immunoprevention
- Served as Journal Club Coordinator for the Therapeutics and Pharmacology program
- Completed graduate-level courses: Foundations of Biomedical Research, Ethical Dimensions in Biomedical Sciences, Cellular Neurophysiology, Molecular Neurobiology, Scientific Writing, Principles of Therapeutics, and Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics
Education
PhD - Biomedical Informatics
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
Houston, TX12.2028
Master's (Not Completed) - Biomedical Informatics
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics (MSBMI), UTHealth Houston
Houston, TX12.2024
Certificate - Computer Programming
Houston Community College
Houston, TX05.2021
Bachelor - Pharmacy
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani)
Pilani, Rajasthan, India05.2016
Skills
- Molecular Biology (Bench Science) - Skillful
- Computer Programming - Experienced
- Data Science - Skillful
- Communication and Interpersonal - Expert
PUBLICATIONS
- Raj, P., Cho, Y., Jiang, Y., & Gong, Y. (2024). Challenges in Selecting Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Use in a Patient-Facing Technology. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 310, 1432-1433.
- Raj, P., Cho, Y., Jiang, Y., & Gong, Y. (2023). Selecting patient-reported outcome measures for a patient-facing technology. JAMIA open, 6(4), ooa104.
- Kato, D., Egu, N., Okele, I., Raj, P., & Gong, Y. (2023). Graphical Representation of Lipid Panel: A Simplified Time-Series Data Display. In Context Sensitive Health Informatics and the Pandemic Boost (pp. 117-121). IOS Press.
- Pudakalakatti, S., Raj, P., Salizzio, T. C., Enriquez, J. S., Bourgeois, D., Dutta, P., ... & Bhattacharya, P. K. (2022). Metabolic Imaging Using Hyperpolarization for Assessment of Premalignancy. Cancer Immunoprevention: Methods and Protocols, 169-180.
- Tran, A. M., Chalbatani, G. M., Berland, L., Cruz De Los Santos, M., Raj, P., Jalali, S. A., ... & Calin, G. A. (2020). A new world of biomarkers and therapeutics for female reproductive system and breast cancers: circular RNAs. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 8, 50.
- Yan, L., Raj, P., Yao, W., & Ying, H. (2019). Glucose metabolism in pancreatic cancer. Cancers, 11(10), 1460.
- Farooqi, A. A., Fuentes-Mattei, E., Fayyaz, S., Raj, P., Goblirsch, M., Poltronieri, P., & Calin, G. A. (2019, October). Interplay between epigenetic abnormalities and deregulated expression of microRNAs in cancer. In Seminars in cancer biology (Vol. 58, pp. 47-55). Academic Press.
- Pandey, A., Raj, P., Goru, S. K., Kadakol, A., Malek, V., Sharma, N., & Gaikwad, A. B. (2017). Esculetin ameliorates hepatic fibrosis in high fat diet induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by regulation of FoxO1 mediated pathway. Pharmacological Reports, 69(4), 666-672.
Languages
English
Full Professional
Timeline
Graduate Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
05.2025 - 10.2025
Research Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
08.2024 - 10.2024
Teaching Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
09.2023 - 05.2024
Research Assistant
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
09.2022 - 08.2023
Research Assistant
MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
08.2016 - 03.2020
Certificate - Computer Programming
Houston Community College
Bachelor - Pharmacy
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani)
PhD - Biomedical Informatics
McWilliams SBMI, UTHealth Houston
Master's (Not Completed) - Biomedical Informatics
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics (MSBMI), UTHealth Houston