Srikar Chamala, PhD
Clinical Bioinformatics Manager | Genomics & Bioinformatics Faculty
Univ. of Florida | Dept. of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine
UF Health Pathology Laboratories | UF Genetics Institute
4800 SW 35th Dr | Box 100275 | Gainesville, FL 32608
Tel: (801) 404-3165 | Email: srikarchamala@gmail.com
Srikar Chamala received his Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, where he examined putative single nucleotide polymorphisms in mitochondrial genes associated with high rates of obesity in the Pima Indian population of Arizona. Later he moved to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he completed the master’s degree in Bioinformatics. He then moved to University of Florida (UF) where he worked as a Biological Scientist and also was admitted into the PhD program. At UF, his research area was comparative genomics. His focus was on understanding the genomic features that change during duplication of whole genomes. For analysis and interpretation of large-scale biological data, Srikar developed new computational algorithms and pipelines. With these novel tools, he has made fundamental discoveries - rapid loss and silencing of genes after natural whole genome duplication events, and rapid evolution of alternative splicing in plants. He also developed a novel whole-genome assembly strategy for generating a high-quality reference genome. Another significant contribution of his research work is development of new genetic marker development bioinformatics tools.
Srikar's research work resulted in publications in high impact journals such as Science, Nature, Genome Biology, etc. in the field of genomics and bioinformatics, and were highlighted in news outlets world-wide.
Currently, at UF he is leading bioinformatics efforts at Molecular Laboratory at UF Health Pathology Laboratories in developing next-generation sequencing clinical assays and data management for personalized cancer medicine. Additionaly, he is conducting research in understating genetic basis for cancer and Type 1 diabetes using sequencing and array based genomics technologies.
Srikar's research work resulted in publications in high impact journals such as Science, Nature, Genome Biology, etc. in the field of genomics and bioinformatics, and were highlighted in news outlets world-wide.
Currently, at UF he is leading bioinformatics efforts at Molecular Laboratory at UF Health Pathology Laboratories in developing next-generation sequencing clinical assays and data management for personalized cancer medicine. Additionaly, he is conducting research in understating genetic basis for cancer and Type 1 diabetes using sequencing and array based genomics technologies.