Dr Prasanti Kotagiri is a clinician scientist holding joint positions as a Laboratory Head in the Department of Immunology and as a Consultant Nephrologist at the Alfred Hospital. Her work focuses on the B cell receptor repertoire and immune transcriptome in aging, autoimmunity, and transplantation. Her group aims to elucidate complex immune responses by analysing human cohorts with antigen-specific cell profiling, CITE-seq and immune repertoire sequencing, helping pave the way for innovative therapeutic strategies.

Dr Kotagiri has won multiple nationally competitive fellowships including a NHMRC EL1, RACP Jacquot, University of Melbourne McKenzie, Viertel and Fulbright and has published in top ranking journals including first author publications in Nature, Immunity and Nature Communications.

Dr Kotagiri completed her undergraduate medical degree at Monash University (MBBS) as well as a Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSc) which she undertook at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof Margaret Esiri. After completing her Nephrology specialist training in 2018 in Melbourne, Dr Kotagiri undertook a PhD at University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof Ken Smith supported by a RACP Jacquot Fellowship. Her work focused on the B cell receptor repertoire and immune transcriptome in autoimmunity, infection, and vaccination with the aim to uncover aberrant pathways in disease and ineffective vaccine responses. In 2022, she was a recipient of the University of Melbourne McKenzie Fellowship to support her research on health aging and was also appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine where she designed and ran the Melbourne Medical School Translation Medicine course. She subsequently won a Fulbright Fellowship in 2023 to undertake research at Stanford University in Prof Scott’s Boyd lab utilising CITEseq and immune receptor sequencing to explore B cell antigenic breadth post infection/vaccination.

Since joining Monash in 2024, her group is focusing on three main projects:

1. IgA nephropathy
   • Profiling auto-reactive B cells and their targets with the goal to identify shared antigenic responses.
   • Collaboration: Stanford University
2. Aging and auto-immunity
   • Modelling key B cell populations with age to uncover the mechanisms of autoimmunity.
   • Collaboration: Cambridge University
3. Transplantation
   • Characterising donor specific B cells and how this relates to transplantation outcomes.
   • Collaboration: Austin Health and Monash Health