Profile: Shrikanth Gadad, PhD

Biography

Dr. Shrikanth Gadad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Medicine as of 2025. He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2010 from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, under the mentorship of Dr. Tapas K. Kundu. His doctoral research focused on the role of NPM1 in organizing higher-order chromatin structure and transcription regulation, which sparked a lasting interest in signal-regulated genome function. Dr. Gadad pursued postdoctoral training with Dr. W. Lee Kraus at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas from 2010 to 2017, where he studied signal- dependent transcriptional regulation, focusing on the role of long noncoding RNAs and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) in estrogen signaling. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. Gadad was funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation Postdoctoral Grant for three years. Later, he received the prestigious Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) First-Time Faculty Recruitment Award and established his independent research program/lab at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso as a tenure-track Assistant Professor from 2018 to 2025. His research has been funded by several distinguished organizations as Principal Investigator, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), CPRIT, the Edward N. and Margaret G. Marsh Foundation, the Lizanell and Colbert Coldwell Foundation, and the American Cancer Society Grants. Dr. Gadad's research focuses on understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that drive disease development. His laboratory emphasizes three key areas: genetics, epigenetics, and the noncoding human genome, with the goal of unraveling the molecular underpinnings of gene regulation. His work employs a multidisciplinary approach, integrating molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, and genomics to identify novel coding and noncoding genes, uncover their regulatory mechanisms, and explore their potential as therapeutic targets, particularly in the context of cancer. Dr. Gadad's scientific contributions underscore his commitment to advancing precision medicine through innovative research on the regulatory genome.