Biography

Dr. Vani Nilakantan is the Vice President, Research at Allina Health System, Minneapolis Minnesota. Dr. Nilakantan has over 25 years research experience in academic and hospital based settings. At Allina Health, she is the head of research for the health system, provides executive level leadership for clinical and basic research within an integrated hospital system environment and is the authorized organizational representative and signatory for system. Dr. Nilakantan Provides visionary perspective on the future of research at a major health care institution. She also sets strategic direction for research and reorganized research structure for Allina Health System. Prior to joining Allina, Dr. Nilakantan was the Director of Investigator Initiated Research and Sponsored Programs Office at Aurora Health Care. At Aurora Health Care, she had oversight of basic science, pre-clinical, translational and clinical research, innovation in alignment with Aurora Health Care mission and strategic priorities. She also created effective collaborative relationships with senior administrative leadership and clinical system program leaders and medical staff. Her responsibilities included oversight of the grants management for the system.

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Research Interest

Dr. Vani Nilakantan completed her PhD in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky in 1997. She was a researcher/faculty member at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) until 2010. At MCW, her research focused on oxidative stress in acute kidney injury and cardiac/kidney transplantation. She further continued her research on acute kidney injury at Aurora Health Care, where she worked with data scientists to develop a predictive model for early diagnosis of acute kidney injury She has over 50 abstracts/presentations and over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been funded