Close-up of a young woman with dark curly hair and brown eyes, wearing a black zip-up jacket, smiling lightly, against a neutral background.

Tanaya Sheth, MS

Graduate Student | Tanaya.Sheth@seattlechildrens.org

Tanaya earned two bachelor’s degrees in Life Science and Chemistry from Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, India. In 2021, she hopped across the world to earn her master’s at Johns Hopkins University, where she investigated how Wolbachia infection upregulated thioester-containing proteins affect Plasmodium falciparum infection in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes in Dr. George Dimopoulos’s lab.

After graduating in 2023, she traded Baltimore’s quiet charm for New York City’s bustling chaos and joined Dr. David Fidock’s lab, diving deep into the molecular dynamics of drug-resistance in P. falciparum. There, she worked on projects with Medicines for Malaria Venture and the WHO, becoming well-acquainted with mutant parasites.

Now, as a first-year PhD student in the Pathobiology program at the University of Washington, she’s skipped the rotation circuit entirely and committed straight away to joining the Vaughan lab. Her current projects include decoding the role of HAD3 in mosquito-stage transmission and testing new candidate parasites for next-generation malaria vaccines.

When she’s not coaxing parasites to reveal their secrets, she’s out exploring record stores, enjoying live music, doing aerial arts, riffing on her electric guitar and hanging out with her cat, Rhys.

Publications

  1. Kanai M, Mok S, Yeo T, Shears MJ, Jeon JH, Narwal SK, Ross LS, Haile MT, Tripathi AK, Mlambo G, Kim J, Gil-Iturbe E, Okombo J, Park H, Wiradiputri K, Ward KE, Rozenberg FD, Fairhurst KJ, Bloxham TS, Bridgford JL, Sheth TR, Lee MCS, Small-Saunders JL, Mancia F, Quick M, Uhlemann AC, Sinnis P, Fidock DA. Plasmodium falciparum quinine resistance is multifactorial and includes a role for the drug/metabolite transporters PfCRT and DMT1. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Apr 11:2024.09.27.615529. doi: 10.1101/2024.09.27.615529. PMID: 39386571; PMCID: PMC11463348.

     

  2. Nguyen W, Boulet C, Dans MG, Loi K, Jarman KE, Barnes CBG, Yeo T, Sheth T, Mukherjee P, Chakraborty A, Famodimu MT, Delves MJ, Pollard H, Sutherland CJ, Coyle R, Sevilleno N, Boonyalai N, Lee MCS, Rabie T, Birkholtz LM, Baud D, Brand S, Chowdury M, de Koning-Ward TF, Fidock DA, Gilson PR, Sleebs BE. Optimization and Characterization of the Antimalarial Activity of N-Aryl Acetamides that are Susceptible to Mutations in ROM8 and CSC1. J Med Chem. 2025 Aug 14;68(15):16613-16644. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c01471. Epub 2025 Jul 18. PMID: 40680058; PMCID: PMC12362624.

  3. Awalt JK, Ooi ZK, Ashton TD, Mansouri M, Calic PPS, Zhou Q, Vasanthan S, Lee S, Loi K, Jarman KE, Penington JS, Qiu D, Zhang X, Lehane AM, Mao EY, Gancheva MR, Wilson DW, Giannangelo C, MacRaild CA, Creek DJ, Yeo T, Sheth T, Fidock DA, Churchyard A, Baum J, Famodimu MT, Delves MJ, Kristan M, Stewart L, Sutherland CJ, Coyle R, Jagoe H, Lee MCS, Chowdury M, de Koning-Ward TF, Baud D, Brand S, Jackson PF, Cowman AF, Dans MG, Sleebs BE. Optimization and Characterization of N-Acetamide Indoles as Antimalarials That Target PfATP4. J Med Chem. 2025 Apr 24;68(8):8933-8966. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c00614. Epub 2025 Apr 14. PMID: 40228810; PMCID: PMC12035806.

  4. Vandana V, Dong S, Sheth T, Sun Q, Wen H, Maldonado A, Xi Z, Dimopoulos G. Wolbachia infection-responsive immune genes suppress Plasmodium falciparum infection in Anopheles stephensi. PLoS Pathog. 2024 Apr 10;20(4):e1012145. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012145. PMID: 38598552; PMCID: PMC11034644.

  5. Sheth, T. R., Gokhe, A. A., Kumar, P. N., & Chitnis, K. S. Recycling Flower and Kitchen Waste to Make Biodegradable Paper. World Journal of Environmental Biosciences. 2021 March 25;10(1), 35-38. https://doi.org/10.51847/tkMmywD2fA