Shashidhar Ravishankar

As a computational immunologist in the Warren Lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, I’m currently serving as a Staff Scientist. In my role, I focus on unraveling the intricacies of T-cell repertoires in various cancers. Employing a multi-modal genomics approach, my work revolves around quantifying and characterizing the involvement of T-cells in the immune response against cancer. Specifically, my current research zeroes in on understanding the T-cell response to Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a malignancy associated with HIV, with its causative agent being the Kaposi Sarcoma Herpes Virus (KSHV) or Human Gammaherpesvirus 8 (HHV8).

Beyond my primary research, I’m also passionate about developing tools and frameworks to dissect and interpret high-dimensional sequencing data, particularly in exploring the immune repertoire across different tissues.

Before joining the Hutchinson Cancer Center, I earned my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, working under the guidance of Dr. Fredrik Vannberg and Dr. Eldin Talundzic. During my doctoral research, conducted in collaboration with the Malaria Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I developed a framework for detecting variations in the P. falciparum genome associated with anti-malarial drug resistance. Additionally, I played a role in generating the first complete genome of the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium Brasilianum.