Nayan was born and raised in Northern Virginia. She moved to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate, where she spent three years working in Dr. Eric Kandel’s lab and fell in love with neuroscience. After graduation, she moved to Boston to attend Harvard Medical School, where she discovered her passion for treating patients with brain tumors. She ultimately decided to pursue a career in Radiation Oncology, a field that would allow her to combine her interests in neuro-oncology, palliative care, and research.

Over the last 6 years, her research has primarily focused on characterizing the epidemiology, symptom burden, management, and clinical outcomes among patients with brain metastases utilizing large databases, such as SEER-Medicare. Moving forward, she is interested in studying not just clinical but also genomic factors associated with brain metastases-related outcomes, and she is currently working on conducting large-scale, molecular analyses to identify and validate candidate genomic drivers of disease pathogenesis and response to radiation among patients with brain metastases.

Fun fact: When Nayan is not in the hospital seeing patients or doing research, she can likely be found chasing her “baby” girl around their home, who may have just turned one but has the attitude of a teenage girl.

Favorite quote: Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. -Babe Ruth