Staff spotlight: Pankhuri Gupta

Originally from Delhi, India, Pankhuri Gupta attended University of Minnesota for undergraduate studies and moved to Seattle for the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program.

Outside of her studies, she has loved getting to explore the Pacific Northwest outdoors and spending time with her cat Chikoo.

Genetic Counseling Graduate Program

The Genetic Counseling Graduate Program began development in 2018 by Drs. Gail Jarvik and Robin Bennett and enrolled its first class of students in 2021. The program is designed to prepare graduates for careers as genetic counselors who can help translate genetic data into more effective patient care and are equipped to serve patients with a range of genetic conditions. Faculty leading this program include Robin Bennett, Brad Rolf, Lauren Puryear, and Gail Jarvik.

Pankhuri graduated the program in the spring of 2024, and even served as the Gonfalonier for the School of Medicine in the commencement ceremony.

Research

Pankhuri then joined the Stergachis Lab as a Research Genetic Counselor where her current focus lies within the Brotman Baty Institute Clinical Variant Database (BBI-CVD) project.

As part of the project, she is involved in reinterpreting variants of uncertain significance using MAVE functional data, and curating MAVE datasets for using in variant reclassification.

What is MAVE data?

Multiplexed assays of variant effect (MAVEs) are high-throughput methods employed to investigate the impact of genetic variations in proteins or nucleic acids on their functionality.

Advisory and advancement

Beyond her research contributions, Pankhuri is deeply engaged in shaping the future of genetic counseling. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for the UW Genetic Counseling Graduate Program, where her insights and experiences are invaluable in contributing to the growth of the program and guiding emerging professionals in the field.

She was also honored as one of ten recipients of the Advanced Research Training for Genetic Counselors (ART-GC) fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Funded by the Warren Alpert Foundation, this fellowship enables her to collaborate closely with Dr. Danny Miller on pioneering research involving whole genome long-read sequencing for clinical genetic testing.

"As a recent graduate, collaborating with and learning from the best in the field is very rewarding," says Pankhuri, underscoring her commitment to excellence in genetic counseling and research.