Meet Our Lab

Dr. Casanova leads the lab and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Saint Louis University. She received her PhD in Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology from the University of Louisville School of Medicine and then received additional training in two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of South Carolina, Greenville School of Medicine.

Dr. Casanova studies the relationship between hypermobility-related phenotypes, neurotypes such as autism and ADHD, and autonomic function. In addition, she uses computational techniques to study the genetics of neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative conditions, as well as explore macroevolutionary topics in evolutionary genomics.

Greeshma Korupolu is a graduate student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at Saint Louis University. She is interested in building a career in the bioinformatics field and applying computational approaches to biological research. She has experience analyzing high throughput sequencing data using Python, R, and Linux, with interests in genomics and data driven biological research. Beyond academics, she enjoys listening to music and watching movies and series on Netflix. She is currently working on genomics projects supporting the Radiation-Constraint Ratchet Project in the Casanova Lab.

Sushant Agellu is an MS candidate in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at Saint Louis University, graduating December 2026. His research focuses on computational genomics, including variant analysis on the NIH All of Us Researcher Workbench and RNA-seq differential expression analysis. In the Casanova Lab, he is working on an epidemiological project investigating the prevalence of various chronic illnesses in autistic adults in the All of Us database, as well as a project on the roles of inborn error of metabolism-associated genetic variants in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions. He also works on plant omics pipeline development at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Sushant is proficient in Python, R, and large-scale genomic data analysis on cloud and HPC platforms.

Savir Potru is a junior at Saint Louis University pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology. His research interests are centered around neuroscience, physiology, and understanding how different systems in the body interact with one another. In the lab, he is currently working on a project investigating cardiovascular-related diseases in Ehlers-Danlos syndromes/hypermobility spectrum disorders (EDS/HSD). In addition, he is a research assistant on a project studying autonomic function in people with hypermobile-related phenotypes. Through this research, he hopes to better understand how differences that may seem minor at first can affect a person's health and potentially contribute to more significant conditions over time. In the future, he hopes to pursue a career in medicine while continuing to stay involved in research and use what he has learned to better understand and care for his patients.