Ananda is a PhD candidate under a cotutelle program involving Macquarie University and Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. She has been working in the fields of Neurosciences, Neuroimmunology, Tryptophan and Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) metabolisms. In addition to her PhD research, Ananda works as a research assistant performing targeted metabolomics analyses including High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS).

Her research interests focus particularly on the involvement of the tryptophan catabolism (via the kynurenine pathway) and BH4 metabolism in human inflammatory diseases and the identification of biomarkers to monitor the efficacy of novel therapeutic strategies to treat inflammatory chronic conditions.

She is currently working on the understanding of the the link between pain sensitization and two metabolic pathways, the synthesis of BH4 and the kynurenine pathway. Specifically, her project focuses on of the effect of xanthurenic acid (a kynurenine pathway intermediate) on the levels of the nociceptive compound BH4, and how that impacts on the redox and inflammatory status of the tissue that may facilitate pain induction.