Texas Biomed Staff

Hemant Kulkarni

Staff Scientist II | Genetics
Phone: 210-258-9280
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Summary

Dr. Kulkarni is a native of India, where he earned degrees in public health and medicine from Nagpur University and began a university teaching career. Later, he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine. He joined John Blangero, PhD.’s team at Texas Biomed in July 2011.  Dr. Kulkarni has varied academic interests that span a wide array of diseases but revolve around the common theme of conducting high-quality epidemiological and clinical studies with state-of-the-art statistical techniques. He has special interest in analyzing genomic data.

Education

Doctoral Degree: Medicine (1989)

Nagpur University Nagpur , India

Master's Degree: MBBS Public Health (1986)

Nagpur University Nagpur , India

Postdoctoral Work

2009-2011  Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio  

2002-2009   Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

1989-2002   Lecturer, Preventive and Social Medicine, Nagpur, India

Research Focus

Biostatistics – I have conducted biostatistical analyses in innumerable research projects that I have been involved with. My specific areas of interest are as follows:

  • Non-linear dynamics of biological phenomena: Specifically, I have worked with fuzzy logic and have published on the potential use of fuzzy logic in making surgical decisions in trauma patients.
  • Survival analyses: I have expertise in conducting survival analyses. During the eight years that I worked at UTHSCSA, I completed extensive survival analyses that include the use of Kaplan-Meier survival plots, log rank and Wilcoxon tests, Cox proportional hazards modeling, and modeling and interpretation of Schoenfeld residuals.
  • Meta-analyses: I have published five papers dealing with meta-analysis.  I also have served on the expert panel of AHRQ's recent systematic review on use of thrombectomy devices in STEMI and non-STEMI patients.
      • My work on Markov modeling of the predicted change in the distribution of CCL3L1 gene copy number in populations of different ethnic background has  been published (Gonzalez et al, Science 2005; 307:1434-1440.)
      • The second aspect of my mathematical modeling work was published in PLoS One and deals with the prediction of how the CCL3L1 and CCR5 genotypes may strongly influence the HIV epidemic trajectories in closed populations and the estimates of HIV vaccine efficacy.
      • A third area of mathematical modeling work I have done includes the use of a non-linear generalized estimating equations technique to population level dynamics of the CD4+ T cell counts that are dictated by host genotypes and how these population–level dynamics capture the response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (Ahuja et al, Nat Med 2008; 14(4):413-20)
      • Another feature of my mathematical modeling work deals with the development of a novel surrogate marker for HIV disease course – cumulative CD4 count (cCD4). The development and validity of this parameter was published (Dolan et al. Nat Immunol 2007 Dec; 8(12):1324-1336)
      • My work on the risk stratification of HIV-infected subjects based on the CCL3L1 and CCR5 genotypes was published in PLoS One.
      • I have worked on large publicly available datasets of gene expression microarrays for disease status classification in cancers. I have also conducted genome-wide association studies for SNPs and methylomes.
    • I have expertise in database management – both flat-field and relational databases – of highly complex and dense genetic datasets and have contributed to genetic epidemiology of several genes that are associated with HIV/AIDS, including CCR5, CCL3L1, CCL4L1, DARC, ApoE, MBL-2 and MCP-1. I have written task-dedicated scripts in Visual Basic that helped accomplish complex data management tasks in the Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel environment.

    Epidemiology– I trained as a clinical epidemiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program for Clinical Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA in 1997. The coursework comprised of detailed description and hands-on exercises in quantitative and qualitative aspects of descriptive, analytical and interventional epidemiology

    Health Social Sciences– I trained as a health social scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, in 1997.  I mastered the quantitative techniques of social networks, structured equation modeling and factor analysis.>

    Awards and Honors

    1997  FIRCA Award: International Collaborative AIDS research, Fogarty International

    2004  Best Poster Award: Winner in the category of Junior Faculty at the 7th Annual Research Day, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX

    2008  Best Poster Award: Winner in the category of Junior Faculty at the 11th Annual Research Day, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX