Meet the Team

Principal Investigator

Dr. Katherine Cahill is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she serves as the Medical Director of Clinical Asthma Research. Dr. Cahill received her M.D. from Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She completed an Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center followed by a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both affiliated with Harvard Medical School. After 5 years on Faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she moved her family to Nashville in 2018 to join the asthma research team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She has been recognized as a Top Doctor in Nashville since 2019 and in 2021 was recognized by the American Thoracic Society with the Jo Rae Wright Award for her contribution to science. Dr. Cahill has an active research program with the goal to develop new treatments for adult asthma. She serves as the co-Principle Investigator and study physician for the GATA-3 study.

Research Fellow

Dr. Alessandra Tomasello is a Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Tomasello attended Comenius University of Bratislava (SK) where she obtained her MD degree. She then attended the School of Respiratory Diseases at the University of Palermo, where she is completing her residency in Pulmonology. Her primary research interest is mainly focused on chronic respiratory diseases with particular interest in severe asthma.

Dr, Tomasello is happy to be part of Cahill group which evaluates new treatments for adult asthma.

Research Resident

Dr. Manivasagam is an internal medicine and pediatrics resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She grew up in Plano, Texas, a suburb just north of Dallas. She then headed up to Washington University in St. Louis to study biochemistry. After undergrad, she continued at WashU for her MD/PhD training and completed her thesis in neuroimmunology. During grad school, Sindhu enjoyed both science education and communication, and especially loved participating in STEM outreach at local high schools. She then transitioned to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for residency; her interests are in clinical immunology and science outreach.

Study Coordinator

Kirti Vikash Surati, MSN obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Belmont University in 1998.  She joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center in July of 2020 as a float nurse. Later she worked as an Assistant Nurse Manager over four VUMC Primary Care Clinics for a year and enjoyed serving on seven committees which included Vanderbilt Medical Group Workplace Violence Committee, ambulatory Quality and Safety Committee, and POP Health Committee.  Kirti joined Vanderbilt Coordinating Center in 2022 after completing her master’s in nursing leadership and management at the University of Alabama Huntsville in 2021. Kirti enjoys being a research nurse and providing optimal patient care and patient opportunities to improve population health by collaborating with multidisciplinary teams. Kirti currently, and for the past 8 years, serves her community as the Youth Chair for the Gujurat Cultural Association. She enjoys traveling different countries and spending time with her husband and two children (21-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter).

Co-Investigator

Dr. Stokes Peebles is John and Elizabeth Murray Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School where he serves as section chief of Allergy and Immunology and program director of the Allergy and Immunology fellowship program. He graduated with an M.D. degree from Vanderbilt, completed a fellowship in Allergy/Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and then returned to Vanderbilt where he completed a fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy/Immunology, Pulmonary, and Critical Care. Dr. Peebles has a very active research program examining the mechanisms of airway inflammation in asthma. For the GATA-3 study, Dr. Peebles serves as a study physician.

Co-Investigator

Dr. Leonard Bacharier is the Janie Robinson and John Moore Lee Chair in Pediatrics, Professor in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Section Chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Scientific Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Director of the Center for Pediatric Asthma Research. Dr. Bacharier is a pediatric allergist/immunologist with extensive experience in pediatric asthma research, particularly clinical trials. He has led and participated in multiple federally-funded multicenter clinical trials in childhood asthma. Dr. Bacharier is recognized as a global leader in the treatment of asthma and serves on the Global Initiative for Asthma Science Committee. For the GATA-3 study, Dr. Bacharier serves as a study physician.

Co-Investigator

Dr. Kevin Niswender is an Associate Profess of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Research Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Vanderbilt University followed by a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Endocrinology at the University of Washington Medical Center. He is a physician and research in the field of metabolism and obesity at VUMC and the VA Healthcare System and has extensive clinical and research experience with GLP-1 receptor agonists. For the GATA-3 study, Dr. Niswender serves as a study physician.

Co-Investigator

Dr. Gordon R. Bernard is Executive Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1981 as a physician scientist and became Medical Director for the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Director for Pulmonary and Critical Care research programs in 1983. Dr. Bernard’s research has primarily focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and he established the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center in 1987 to support the large multi-institutional and international clinical investigations he was leading. He currently serves as Executive Vice President for Research and as the Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at VUMC. For the GATA-3 study, Dr. Bernard serves as co-Principle Investigator and oversees study start to finish along with Dr. Cahill.