Anita Undale, MD, PhD

Program Director

Dr. Anita Undale joined the CGCB as a Program Director in November 2022. Previously, Dr. Undale served as a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institute on Aging where she organized and managed scientific and technical merit reviews of applications in a variety of age-related research including immunology and neuroscience. Dr. Undale has served on several trans-NIH committees and working groups such as the Scientific Overlap Committee, Scientific Review Officer Technical Competencies Subcommittee, and Extramural Project Management Working Group.

Dr. Undale obtained her M.D. in internal medicine with a fellowship in pathology from the University of Mumbai, India, and a Ph.D. in immunology from Mayo Graduate School, Rochester, MN. Her graduate studies were focused on the development of vaccines for the treatment of prostate and skin cancers. She subsequently joined the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin intramural research program as a research fellow focusing on degenerating diseases. Later, Dr. Undale joined Leidos Biomedical Research Inc. as a Scientific Project Director and led the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) project for NCI and NHGRI. These projects provided valuable insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation in multiple tissues from deceased individuals and explored disease-related perturbations in a variety of human diseases including cancer with a goal of developing targeted molecular medicine. Dr. Undale has authored and co-authored several manuscripts in high impact journals during her career and has presented her work at both national and international conferences. She has received numerous awards including NIA and NIH Directors' Awards.