Rahul Srinivasan received basic training in medicine and surgery from the University of Mumbai in India and obtained a PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh. His doctoral work focused on the development of a novel viral vector-based screening assay to identify ion channel modulators as well as to study the role of the vanilloid receptor in pain. In 2004, the American Society for Gene Therapy granted him the Excellence in Research Award for outstanding students and fellows. After obtaining his PhD, Dr. Srinivasan developed a keen interest in the biology of ion channels and their role in disease states. He therefore joined the laboratory of Dr. Henry Lester at the California Institute of Technology where he is currently a postdoctoral research scholar. His broad research interest is to study the role of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in Parkinson’s disease using optical and electrophysiological techniques as well as animal models of PD. To this effect, he is currently working on the development of novel fluorescence-based assays to identify chemical upregulators of nAChRs. He would like to apply these assays as a therapeutic approach to treat PD.