Degree/Certificate	College/University	Years of Study	%/CGPA	Division/rank
PhD (Pharmacology & Toxicology)	NIPER S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab	2011-16	9/10	NA
M.S. (Pharm.) (Pharmacology & Toxicology)	NIPER Guwahati, Assam	2009-11	8.78/10	First rank in university
B. Pharmacy	Sri Vasavi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, affiliated to Andhra University, Andhra Pradesh (A.P.)	2005-09	83.32%	First rank in university
Intermediate (Class XI & XII)	Vignana Bharathi Junior College, affiliated to Board of Intermediate Education, A.P.	2003-05	97.5%	8th rank in the state
Class X	Ushodaya Public School, affiliated to Board of Secondary Education, A.P.	2002-03	90.83%	First rank in town (Chirala, A.P.)

Dr. Amara applies knowledge of biomedical science, pharmacology and toxicology to unravel the molecular pathology of disease and explore novelpharmacological interventionsto address renal, hepatic and vascular injury associated with metabolic&nonmetabolic diseases as well as drug-induced toxicity and adverse effects, contributing valuable insights to the broader field of biomedical science.

Research areas of interest:

• Metabolic diseases, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, NAFLD
• Nephropathy and hypertension
• Drug-induced toxicity and hypertension
• Nonclinical evaluation of efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals

Period	Organization	Position
Apr 2023 –Dec 2023	Meharry Medical College, USA	Biochemical research associate
Jan 2022 – Apr 2023	Meharry Medical College, USA	Postdoctoral fellow
Sep 2019 – Dec 2021	Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA	Postdoctoral fellow
Apr 2018 – Sep 2019	North Dakota State University, USA	Postdoctoral fellow
July 2017 – Apr 2018	Laila Nutraceuticals, India	Research associate
May 2017 – July 2017	Sivanaray Inc., India	Research assistant

Research grants

• NIH – NIMHD – RCMI Program in Health Disparities Research at Meharry Medical College Pilot Project, ‘Mechanism of Hypoxia-mediated APOL1 Expression in Human Podocytes’ (Unique Federal Award Identification Number: U54MD007586)

Awards

1. Sun Pharma Science Scholar Award-2016 for Young Scientists in the field of Bio-medical sciences, held on Apr 28^th, 2017 in New Delhi
2. OD Gulati Prize for best oral presentation in IPSCON 2016 organized by Indian Pharmacological Society held at PGIMER, Chandigarh
3. Gold medal and cash prize – First rank during M.S. (Pharm.)
4. All India Rank-1in Biological Sciences stream in NIPER-PhD JAT-2011
5. Sri Nageswara Rao Pantulu gold medal – Andhra University First rank during B. Pharm.
6. E. Venkata Rao Shastiabdi Poorthi Prize – Andhra University First rank during B. Pharm.
7. D. Visweswaram Shastiabdi Poorthi Prize – Andhra University First rank during B. Pharm.
8. Pharmacy Dept. Silver Jubilee Prize of Andhra University –Andhra University first rank during B.Pharm.
9. IDMA-J.B.Mody award was awarded on Jan 7^th, 2011inJW Marriott hotel, Mumbai
10. National Merit Scholarship, Pratibha award (scholarship, gold medal) and Student Federation of India memento – State 8^th rank and district 2^nd rank in Intermediate

Achievements

1. Gold medalby school – Town (Chirala) first in X class
2. ICMR-2011 (Life Sciences)-92^nd rank
3. CSIR-UGC NET Dec 2011-12^th rank in Lectureship category
4. GATE 2011 (Life Sciences)-289^th rank (97.8 percentile)
5. GATE 2009 (Pharmacy) – 177^th rank (99.26 percentile)
6. Completed distance learning course “General course on Intellectual Property” of World Intellectual Property Organization Worldwide Academy (Mar 1 to Apr 15, 2010)

Membership in Professional Associations/Societies

1. Life Member of Indian Pharmacological Society (LV-209)
2. Registered with Andhra Pradesh state Pharmacy Council (63086/A1)

Peer reviewer for journals

1. Medicine® of Lippincott® publisherhttps://journals.lww.com/md-journal/pages/default.aspx
2. Toxicology and Forensic Medicine of Openventio publishers https://openventio.org/open-journal/toxicology-and-forensic-medicine-open-journal/

Media reports

1. Research abstract in Sun Pharma Science Foundation website (Feb 2017). https://sunpharmasciencefoundation.net/directory_of_science_scholars
2. Journal news in ASBMB Today magazine (Dec 2016). Metformin reverses metabolicmemory in a diabetes model. https://www.asbmb.org/Asbmb.Web/media/files/atoday/ASBMBToday-2016-12.pdf
3. Research highlight innatureINDIA(Sep 2016). Metformin, diet tweak to treat diabetic renal damage https://www.nature.com/articles/nindia.2016.122

Sl. No.	Title
1.	Bock F, Dong X, Elias BC, Parekh DV, Mernaugh G, Viquez OM, Hassan A, Amara VR, Liu J, Brown KL, Terker AS, Chiusa M, Leslie S. Gewin, Fogo AB, Brakebusch CH, Pozzi A, Zent R (2021). Rac1 controls epithelial collecting duct integrity by constraining actomyosin activity. Journal of Cell Biology 220(11): e202103080. https://rupress.org/jcb/article/220/11/e202103080/212704/
2.	Ajayi EIO, Molehin OR, Oloyede OI, Kumar V, Amara VR, Kaur J, Karpe PA& Tikoo K (2019). Liver mitochondrial membrane permeability modulation in insulin-resistant, uninephrectomised male rats by Clerodendrum volubile P. Beauv and Manihot esculenta Crantz. Clinical Phytoscience5(31):1-9 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40816-019-0124-0
3.	Amara VR, Surapaneni SK, Tikoo K (2018). Metformin attenuates cardiovascular and renal injury in uninephrectomized rats on DOCA-salt: Involvement of AMPK and miRNAs in cardioprotection. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology362:95-104https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0041008X18304629
4.	Amara VR, Surapaneni SK, Tikoo K (2017). Dysregulation of micro-RNAs and rennin-angiotensin system in high salt diet-induced cardiac dysfunction in uninephrectomized rats PLOS One 12(7): e0180490. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180490
5.	Tikoo K*, Sharma E*, Amara VR* Pamulapati H, Dhawale VS (2016). Metformin improves metabolic memory in high fat diet (HFD)-induced renal dysfunction. Journal of Biological Chemistry291: 21848-21856. (*contributed equally). http://www.jbc.org/content/291/42/21848.long
6.	Dhawale VS, Amara VR, Karpe PA, Malek V, Patel D, Tikoo K (2016). Activation of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) attenuates allergic airway inflammation in rat asthma model. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 306: 17-26.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0041008X16301600
7.	Abhikumar TT, Sujit RT, Sivakumar G, Amara VR, Tikoo K, Prabha G and Prasad VB (2016). BiAnaCA: A Freely Accessible Tool for Data Analysis of End-Point Biochemical Assay. Journal of Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology 1: 104. http://www.elynsgroup.com/journal/article/bianaca-a-freely-accessible-tool-for-data-analysis-of-end-point-biochemical-assay
8.	Augustine BB, Dash S, Lahkar M, Amara VR, Samudrala PK, Thomas JM (2014). Evaluation of immunomodulatory activity of ethyl acetate extract of Leucas aspera in swiss albino mice. International Journal of Green Pharmacy 8(2):84-89 http://www.greenpharmacy.info/index.php/ijgp/article/view/367