Dr. Ravindranath is a professor at the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. She was the founding director of the National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon, founding chair of the Centre for Neuroscience at Indian Institute of Science, and founder director of Center for Brain Research, an autonomous institute created through philanthropy. Dr. Ravindranath has worked at the National Cancer Institute in the United States as a postdoctoral fellow. Later, she joined the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, where she studied the metabolizing capacity of the human brain, focusing especially on psychoactive drugs and environmental toxins. She has also helped the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India to establish National Brain Research Centre to coordinate and network neuroscience research groups in India. She is currently Her main area of interest is the study of brain related disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
She holds a Bachelor and Master of Science from Andhra University and a doctorate in biochemistry from Mysore University.