Biography

Dr. Sudha Sharma is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and currently Interim Director of the National Human Genome Center of the Howard University College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Banaras Hindu University (India) and served for a brief period as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hyderabad (India) before moving to the USA. She completed her Postdoctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Robert Brosh at the National Institute on Aging, NIH, and briefly worked in the group of Dr. Bruce Yankner at Harvard Medical School. She started her independent faculty position in 2008 at the City University of New York and moved to Howard University in 2011 where she received Tenure in 2014 and was promoted to the rank of full Professor in 2019. She has a broad interest in the field of DNA repair and its implications in cancer and aging with a specific focus on the roles of DNA helicases. Her research at Howard University has been funded through grants from NIH and NSF. Dr. Sharma serves on review panels for various national and international funding agencies and on editorial boards of scientific journals. Dr. Sharma leads a first-year medical course, teaches graduate courses, and is actively involved in the training and mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

In addition to lab work, she is active in increasing the participation of women and minorities in STEM fields. She is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)’s Women in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Committee (2022-2025). As an HU-ADAR investigator, she teaches and mentors minority undergraduate students through directed research projects. Additionally, she hosts undergraduate and high school students to volunteer in her lab during the summer.