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Saran grew up in Nashville, TN and attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL for his undergraduate studies. At Northwestern, he was part of the Integrated Science Program (ISP) where he performed research in the laboratory of Dr. Richard I Morimoto studying quality control mechanisms in protein folding. Following his undergraduate studies, he joined the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Washington University in St. Louis. He obtained his PhD in Immunology under the mentorship of Dr. Andrey S. Shaw and Dr. Takeshi Egawa where he studied molecular and cellular mechanisms of T cell function in mouse models of chronic viral infection. After obtaining his MD/PhD, he obtained post-graduate training in clinical pathology/laboratory medicine as part of the Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) in the Department of Pathology at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. As part of the PSTP, Saran joined the laboratory of Dr. Michael S. Diamond. For his postdoctoral studies, Saran sought to understand B cell responses to emerging RNA viruses and focused on alphaviruses, a group of mosquito-transmitted RNA viruses have caused global epidemics. During this time, Saran also gained expertise in molecular and structural virology through his work investigating key molecules involved in alphavirus entry into vertebrate hosts.