Sunandini Sharma, PhD, is a new faculty member at UNMC.
Hometown: Jammu, India
Title and department at UNMC: Instructor, UNMC Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Research/professional interests:
- Genomics
- Spatial transcriptomics/Proteomics and computer vision (AI pathology)
- Algorithm development
How I fell in love with:
Biology was always the subject that fascinated me most, but I also grew up loving computers, mostly because I loved playing video games. My interest in computation became more purposeful later, when I began to see how computational tools could be used to answer biological questions that would otherwise be difficult to approach. That realization naturally drew me toward genomics. Over time, that curiosity expanded into spatial technologies and AI pathology, allowing me to explore biology from genes to cells to entire tissue landscapes.
I have also enjoyed sharing that curiosity with younger students. While teaching a bioinformatics STEM class for middle school students, I introduced DNA and the genetic code concepts and designed hands-on activities, including extracting visible DNA strands from strawberries using simple do-it-yourself materials found at home. Seeing students watch DNA go from an abstract idea to something they could actually see was a wonderful reminder of what first made biology so exciting to me.
Education:
- BTech, bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh, India, 2012-2015
- MS, biomedical informatics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 2015-2017
- PhD, biomedical informatics, UNMC, 2019-2024
- Postdoctoral training, University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), with research conducted at National Cancer Institute (NCI), Rockville, Maryland, 2024-2026
- Computational biology intern, Inflammatix, Burlingame, California, May 2022- August 2022
- Visiting research fellow, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, 2019
Memberships:
- Lymphoma Research Foundation
- Analysis Working Group, NASA Science
- American Association for Cancer Research
Three things people may not know about me:
- I practice Kriya Yoga daily, a breath-focused practice that has become one of my favorite routines. At times, it feels as though I have been completely recalibrated. I am continuing to deepen my practice through a yoga school in India, with the hope of one day helping others experience its benefits as well.
- I’m an avid amateur ukulele player and enjoy how naturally I’ve taken to string instruments.
- I grew up watching “Harry Potter,” “The Lord of the Rings,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” in my native language, and those stories became such a cherished part of my childhood. I can still cast most “Harry Potter” spells in translation; unfortunately, none have worked yet.