My academic clinical training and research experience have provided me with an excellent background in multiple biological disciplines including gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary and pancreatic pathobiology, surgical pathology, biochemistry, and molecular genetics. During my post-doctoral research fellowship in pancreatic pathophysiology at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Mayo Clinic, I was able to transform basic scientific knowledge gained during medical school, into research ideas and hypotheses. This experience helped me grow as an independent researcher and developed my passion for gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary pathology, by working on tissue-based markers and mediators of pancreatitis, experimental models of studying obesity, including in vivo models of diet induced obesity, with associated change in visceral fat composition, and in vitro models of lipolytic flux and understanding the role of fat and lipotoxicity in inflammatory disease outcomes, at a local and systemic level. These have added considerable insight into the role of visceral fat composition in outcomes of acute inflammatory diseases. I also contributed to discovering the novel role of unsaturated fatty acids as modifiers of outcomes in human pancreatic necrosisa. My work focuses on how obesity increases the risk of adverse disease outcomes during critical illnesses such as burns, severe trauma, and acute pancreatitis and can have effects on patient care. I also study how visceral fat composition especially un-saturated visceral fat worsens acute outcomes and its relationship to dietary fat compositionb. I also investigate the effects of obesity on organ function and systemic processes. During these studies, my role was pivotal in understanding the causes and consequences of these disease processes and eventually develop a treatment option for patients with inflammatory pancreatic disorders. My transition into a clinical residency and fellowship program gave me an opportunity to merge my research on obesity and its influence on disease outcomes and its broad relevance to disease pathology and investigational potential. Further training in Pathology helped me acquire newer pathological diagnostic skills and incorporate techniques like histology, immunohistochemistry, image acquisition/analysis, tissue microarray, laser capture microdissection, RNA in situ hybridization, FISH, array comparative genomic hybridization, flow cytometry, and other tissue-based techniques available in bio-medical research with the firm foundation of an intricate knowledge of patho-biology of a disease state to develop therapeutics, and design clinical trials. In the current era of individualized/precision medicine, as an academic pathologist, I am optimally placed to characterize molecular/genomic make-up of a tumor and contribute to clinical decision-making through theranostics and prognostication. My current clinical and research work gives me a perspective about a level of individualization by molecular markers, and gene testing to determine the outcomes of diseases, which is an area I want to further explore in the future. My long-term goals are combining the knowledge I have gained so far with the unique role of an academic gastrointestinal pathologist to allow me a better understanding of pathobiology of diseases and individualizing management strategies for patients.