Animesh Ray

Animesh Ray is the W. M. Keck Foundation Professor of Systems, Computational, and Molecular Biology at the Riggs School, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI). He holds adjunct roles at the University of California, San Diego (2001–2004) and visiting faculty positions at Caltech. His research spans systems biology, cancer biology, and synthetic biology, with a focus on non-coding RNAs, chromosome instability, and Huntington's disease. Dr. Ray earned his PhD in Microbial Genetics from Monash University (Australia) and conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Oregon and MIT. He was a faculty member at the University of Rochester (1991–2001).

Research highlights include discovering the first maternal-effect embryo pattern gene in plants and cloning the DCL1 gene (a key microRNA biogenesis gene) with his student Teresa Golden. His work in DNA computing with Dr. Mitsunori Ogihara was featured in the New York Times and the book One Digital Day. Current projects involve using machine learning to study antigen-antibody interactions and systems biology approaches to cancer drug resistance.

Dr. Ray has advised numerous students, including Stephen Schauer (discoverer of plant Dicer genes DCL2-4). He has authored over 100 publications and holds patents related to plant genetics. Beyond academia, he is an accomplished street photographer, with works published in Street Photography Magazine.