Yajnaseni Chakraborti, MSc, PhD

Yajnaseni (Yajna) Chakraborti, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Health Innovation in Reproductive and Perinatal Population Research within the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research centers on developing innovative methods to examine how behavioral, social, and chemical exposures affect reproductive and perinatal health.

Dr. Chakraborti is particularly focused on improving approaches to address exposure misclassification, with the goal of enhancing the accuracy of studies that assess the impact of the human exposome—especially during critical windows of susceptibility such as preconception—on pregnancy outcomes. She is also deeply committed to applying causal inference methods to better understand time-varying behavioral mechanisms. During her doctoral training, she explored this area by investigating how psychosocial factors and daily adherence influence smoking relapse and long-term cessation outcomes.

Before beginning her doctoral studies in the United States, Dr. Chakraborti worked as a Biostatistician at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where she contributed to early-phase dose-determination studies in oncology drug development. Her work focused on improving dose selection in cancer clinical trials by leveraging biomarker data and the recurrence of adverse treatment effects. She also developed a Bayesian meta-analytic framework to jointly model treatment toxicity and efficacy markers, supporting safer and more effective dose recommendations.

By combining her interest in statistical methods with her commitment to reproductive and pregnancy health, Dr. Chakraborti works to make research both more rigorous and more relevant to improving lives.

Research Areas

Causal Inference, Emerging Exposures, Novel Methods, Etiology of Population Health

Education

• PhD, Temple University 2023
• MSc, Manipal University (India) 2016
• BSc, Christ University (India) 2014

Contact

Email: yajnaseni.chakraborti@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
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