Dr Rangaraju is a neurologist and physician-scientist with expertise in microglial biology, ion channels, mouse models of neurodegenerative, stroke and neuroinflammatory diseases and multi-omics approaches to characterize cellular mechanisms of neurologic diseases. The overall goals of his research program are (1) to identify novel therapeutic approaches to mitigate neuropathology in neurodegenerative diseases and stroke, using preclinical models; and (2) develop novel proteomic approaches to derive native-state proteomes of neurons and glial cells, to understand their relative contributions to disease pathogenesis. His group resolved brain microglial heterogeneity in models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), obtaining a transcriptomic road-map to manipulate microglial immune responses in the brain. This work nominated several therapeutic targets to guide drug repurposing for AD, as well as novel targets such as the microglial potassium channel, Kv1.3. Subsequently, he discovered that Kv1.3 channels are highly expressed by subsets of microglia in human AD brain where they regulate detrimental proinflammatory microglial responses. His group found that Kv1.3 channel activity is functionally coupled to the IFN-Stat1 immune signaling pathway. Using peptide and small molecule Kv1.3 blockers in mouse models of AD, he demonstrated reduced neuropathology and improved synaptic properties, laying the foundation for translation of Kv1.3 blockers to humans. He is also investigating roles of microglial ERK signaling and AD-risk gene BIN1 in AD. His laboratory has optimized protocols for mass spectrometry-based proteomics of microglia isolated from adult mouse and human brain, resolving one of the first microglial proteomes. His group has developed novel in-vivo strategies for cell type-specific proteomic labeling and native-state proteomics of neurons and glia, called Cell type-specific In vivo Biotinylation of Proteins (CIBOP). Using this approach, they identified proteomic signatures of vulnerability of parvalbumin-positive interneurons to early AD pathology. Dr Rangaraju is a dedicated stroke neurologist and a mentor of clinical and research trainees, and junior faculty.