Srikar Chamala, Ph.D., is the Director of Biomedical Informatics and Assistant Professor who leads the bioinformatics, genomics, and pathology informatics efforts at the University of Florida Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Chamala’s research applies bioinformatics and genomics to investigate the genetic basis for human cancers and type 1 diabetes. Additionally, his work involves machine learning and other data analytic techniques to discover and improve clinical outcomes and diagnosis. Dr. Chamala has successfully collaborated and organized multiple international and inter-institutional projects focusing on global health disparities.

In addition to research, Dr. Chamala leads clinical bioinformatics and pathology informatics efforts at UF Health Pathology Laboratories in developing clinical genomic or precision medicine tests (in cancer, germline, and pharmacogenomics), clinical bioinformatics data analysis & management workflows, clinical genomic variant data interpretation, solutions for integrating genomic data into health information systems, pathology analytics and quality assurance (e.g., CAP Cancer Reporting Protocols).

Complementing clinical and basic research efforts, Dr. Chamala has been actively involved in teaching informatics courses – creating and implementing an Informatics for Pathology Practice and Research course series at the University of Florida. The goal of this course series is to build informatics skills among pathology students, residents, fellows, staff, and faculty in both clinical and experimental divisions.

In the area of Bioinformatics and Genomics, Dr. Chamala has made several original contributions in the areas of alternative splicing, comparative genomics, genome sequencing and annotation, genome evolution, genetic marker development, and genetic variant calling. The current focus of his research is in global health equity, specifically understanding the genetic basis for human cancers using genomics technologies. At the same time, Dr. Chamala is pursuing the application of machine learning and other data analytic techniques to discover and improve clinical outcomes and diagnosis using clinical, pathological, and digital imaging datasets. Currently at University of Florida (UF), Dr. Chamala leads informatics efforts in type 1 diabetes (PO1 Award # AI042288), and NCI-supported grants, Florida-California CaRE2 Health Equity Center (U54 Award # CA233444) and NCI-EGRP supported Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC) (http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/captc/).

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