Karthik Shekhar | Research UC Berkeley

Research Expertise and Interest

cellular and systems biology, statistical inference, single-cell genomics

Research Description

The Shekhar Lab is broadly interested in a molecular description of cellular diversity in complex tissues, its developmental and evolutionary origins, and its biological consequences for tissue function and degeneration. They use high-throughput single-cell genomic measurements to understand cellular diversity in the mouse retina and other systems, and explore their conservation in other vertebrates, including humans and non-human primates. A major focus is to develop computational approaches rooted in machine learning to make precise biological inferences that can not only guide experiments, but also reveal general mechanistic principles underlying cellular organization and molecular networks.

In the News

red-colored cell outlines against gray background, with gray images of a bearded man and a mouse at left

Cell Types in the Eye Have Ancient Evolutionary Origins

UC Berkeley study finds that vertebrates vary widely in the number of retinal cell types in the eye, but most cell types seem to have a common origin.

Research Shines a Light on Development of the Visual Cortex During the Critical Period After Birth

A new study from the labs of Professors S. Lawrence Zipursky (opens in a new tab)(UCLA) and Karthik Shekhar(opens in a new tab) (UC Berkeley) presents significant findings that shine an exciting light on our understanding of the influence of vision during the critical period of development in the mouse visual cortex.