Dr. Savita Khanna has been an assistant professor of surgery in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center for the past two years and a university staff member for nearly a decade. She currently is part of a research team that has been working to identify ways to reduce brain injury during stroke.

In 2008, Khanna was awarded a pilot grant from The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) for her research involving the role of glutamate in brain injury. Khanna discovered that oxygen supplementation during a stroke chemically converts glutamate – normally toxic to neurons – into a neuroprotective substance.

Dr. Khanna completed her undergraduate degree and both Masters of science and philosophy at Meerut University in India. She later received her doctorate from the University of Kuopio in Finland before taking a position at The Ohio State University as a research associate. While completing her doctorate, Khanna worked as a research fellow at The University of California-Berkeley.

She has published numerous articles related to her research, co-authored chapters of medical textbooks and served as managing editor of the medical publication, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling during the past twelve years. Dr. Khanna also has professional memberships to the Finnish Physiological Society and the Society for Neuroscience.