Rahul Kohli obtained his MD and PhD from Harvard, where he completed his PhD studies in Biochemistry with Dr. Christopher T. Walsh. He carried out his clinical infectious diseases training at Johns Hopkins University where he also completed post-doctoral studies under Dr. James Stivers. Dr. Kohli joined the faculty at Penn in 2010 in a role bridging the Department of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. The chief objective of his research group has been to probe DNA modifying enzymes and using approaches rooted in enzymology and chemical biology. The enzymes targeted by his group’s studies catalyze the purposeful introduction of mutations or in the chemical modification of nucleobases, and the processes of interest are central to host-pathogen interactions or to epigenetics. Dr. Kohli’s work has been recognized through support from the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation and an NIH Director's New Innovator Award, among others. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigators and was the 2020 recipient of the American Chemical Society Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry.

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