RAJAN KULKARNI MD, PHD, MS

Rajan Kulkarni is Co-Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Dengue Relief Foundation. He has been working on several projects to incorporate low cost technologies for identification and tracking of dengue cases and associated risk factors in collaboration with MINSA, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. Several of these projects have been implemented in Bluefields and the results published in leading journals. He is also working on developing low-cost sensors for detecting proteins and electrolytes in human serum that can be deployed in remote locations. Current projects include creating a mobile phone application that can be utilized in conjunction with these sensors for quantifying this data, in addition to, low-cost transmission from the field to the hospital. He has additionally served as scientific mentor for several medical students who have conducted research in Nicaragua.

Rajan received his bachelors degrees in Chemistry and History from Stanford University, his MD from UCLA, and his PhD in Biochemistry from Caltech. He was also a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University and received an MPhil in Technology Policy from Judge Business School at Cambridge. His clinical training is in Internal Medicine and Dermatology, and his current laboratory research interests include melanoma. He remains interested in developing novel and inexpensive technologies for detecting viral infection in the bloodstream that can be implemented in Nicaragua and throughout Latin America and for developing technologies to assist with dermatologic diagnosis and treatment in remote areas.

Dr. Rajan Kulkarni currently serves as a faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.