Overview

Vismaya Kharkar is a second-year medical student at UUSOM with a passion for understanding the genetic and socioeconomic factors predicting outcomes of chronic disease. As a member of the Pezzolesi lab, she is investigating genetic variants in cohorts of patients with diabetes and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) to understand how genetics may play a role in disease progression.

As an undergraduate, she conducted computational genetics research seeking to understand the evolutionary development of human joints with Dr. Terence Capellini in the Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. Her thesis entitled “Double-Jointed: A Dual Approach to Studying Developmental Gene Expression Differences Between Human and Mouse Limb Joints” was awarded high honors by the department.

In her free time, she likes to draw and go on hikes with her dog.

Education

• A.B. in Human Evolutionary Biology with a secondary in Archaeology, Harvard 2021
• M.D., UUSOM, anticipated 2025