Kartik Shankar, PhD., DABT
Research Leader, Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit
Office: College Station, Texas
Email: Kartik.Shankar@usda.gov
Weblink: RAFSR
Education
Undergraduate Education
B.Pharm. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mumbai University
Graduate Education
Ph.D. in Toxicology, University of Louisiana Monroe
Postdoctoral Training
Nutrition & Pregnancy, Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, Little Rock, AR
Professional Summary
Kartik Shankar is a research scientist with the Agricultural Research Service and serves as the Research Leader for the Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research (RAFSR) unit. The RAFSR is co-located with the IHA on the Texas A&M campus and works closely with its members. The mission of the Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit (RAFSRU) is to prevent and mitigate nutrition-associated chronic disease via innovations in the food-nutrition environment.
Dr. Shankar’s research aims to fundamentally understand the role of maternal and early-life nutrition & environmental factors in the development of obesity and its metabolic co-morbidities. Current studies are focused on understanding the impact of nutritional and environmental stessors (such as heat stress) on epigenetic and non-genetic transmissible factors (such as the microbiome) contributing to intergenerational transmission of chronic disease risk in a translational fashion. These studies leverage basic animal models in conjunction with longitudinal prospective clinical studies in mothers and infants. His group has developed methods to bridge existing clinical cohorts with climate and other environmental data and develop animal models to mimic exposures of malnutrition and heat stress. His current studies are focused on the nexus of maternal nutritional status and heat stress on fetal development and chronic disease risk. Dr. Shankar’s research has resulted in the publication of 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 5 book chapters, other invited publications and over 60 invited presentations at national and international venues.
Dr. Shankar has served in various academic positions from 2005 to 2024, initially as Assistant Professor progressing to tenured full Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (2019). He also served as the Associate Director of Basic Research at the USDA – Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center (2015-2019). Dr. Shankar served as Professor in the Section of Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (2019 – 2024). He also served as the Associate Director for the Molecular, Cellular & Analytical Core of the Colorado NORC and co-leader of the basic research track for the LEAD Center focused on epidemiology of obesity and diabetes (2019 – 2024).
