She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[1] Rao discovers novel ion channels and explores their roles in human health and disease.

The Rao Lab identified the oncogenic role of SPCA2 in breast cancer through an aberrant method of signalling to calcium channels.

[3] In her graduate work, Rao discovered that three catalytic sites in the ATPase enzyme needed to interact to achieve maximal enzymatic rate and that this occurs in a cyclical mechanism.

[citation needed] In 1993, Rao was recruited to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where she became an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology.

[10] Rao also acts as a faculty mentor within several other departments at Johns Hopkins and teaches several classes on Pathways and Regulation, the Human Body, and Molecules and Cells.

[2] The Rao Lab defined the secretory pathway Ca2+, Mn2+-ATPases (SPCA) and later discovered their roles in breast cancer development.

[2] Since rare mutations in the NHE gene had been associated with autism, Rao probed the function of autism-associated variants of this transporter.

[14] Through epigenetic modulation, they were able to restore the ability of NHE6 to maintain alkalinity in the endosome and this improved amyloid beta clearance by astrocytes.