I am a research scientist in Dr Tomas Helikar’s lab at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. My research interests include developing computational methods which exploit multi-omics datasets to learn the mechanisms of inflammatory and autoimmune disease.

From Feb 2023 - Dec 2025, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr Ilya Korsunsky’s lab at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As my primary project, I led spatial analysis of the tumor microenvironment in human colorectal cancer to identify and characterize anti-tumor immunity hubs.

From Aug 2017- Jan 2023, I worked on my PhD in Biophysics with Dr Juilee Thakar at the University of Rochester, NY. My graduate work focused on algorithms which use multiomics data to model immune signaling networks in the contexts of health and disease.

I enjoy designing and building open-source software for an audience of both wet & dry lab biologists. I also enjoy mentoring undergraduate students in a laboratory setting, and teaching bioinformatics at the graduate level.

In my spare time, I enjoy cooking, listening to and playing classical music, reading, art, and exploring the beautiful Massachusetts countryside.

Links

• Harvard Catalyst: https://connects.catalyst.harvard.edu/Profiles/display/Person/212701

• Projects that I worked on in grad school: https://muktapalshikar.github.io/projects/

• Software: https://muktapalshikar.github.io/software/

• My CV: https://muktapalshikar.github.io/cv/