Awdhesh (Dash) Kalia, Ph.D.
School of Health Professions, Division of Education & Training
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, School of Health Professions, Division of Academic Affairs, Sr VP Office, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Associate Graduate Program Director, Diagnostic Genetics and Genomics, School of Health Professions, Division of Academic Affairs, Sr VP Office, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
I am an educator and my primary focus is on teaching, training and mentoring of graduate students (MS) in diagnostic genetics and genomics. My main goal is to enhance student learning experiences in genomics and bioinformatics by developing and implementing innovative pedagogical approaches. Since 2004, I have crafted curricula for 21 courses at both the undergraduate (6) and graduate (15) levels, empowering students with the necessary knowledge and skills. I have directly supervised 2 PhD, 51 MS, and 27 UG students in my lab all of whom have gone on to launch successful careers in science, medicine, allied health professions and education. Moreover, I have served on 6 PhD and 29 MS supervisory/examining committees. My current research is mostly collaborative and focuses on applying genomic and bioinformatic approaches to high throughput sequencing datasets that aim to answer infectious disease ( Li et al 2018, doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy089 ), model organism studies (Aryal et al 2019, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1814377116 ) or human disease problems (Yang et al, 2022, https:// doi.org/10.1038/s41375-022-01652-8 ). Drawing upon my extensive background in molecular and evolutionary genomics of pathogenic bacteria, my own studies explore the genomic basis of virulence evolution in β-hemolytic group-A, -C, and -G streptococci, as well as effective onboarding of cutting edge DNA/RNA sequencing and computational technologies in teaching labs. I actively share my expertise in bacterial genomics and genomics education through various scholarly activities: I was appointed Specialty Chief Editor for Frontiers in Bacteriology and I have been serving as associate editor for Frontiers in Microbiology since 2015 (https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/23359/overview). Furthermore, I have contributed to the development of clinical lab practice guidelines on'Molecular Methods for Genotyping and Strain typing of Infectious Organisms' (CLSI 2021), organized conferences, symposia and workshops to provide valuable educational opportunities to the wider community. Engaging in these scholarly activities allows me to stay at the forefront of the latest technological and intellectual advancements in diagnostic and molecular genomics. This ensures that I can effectively fulfill my role as a teacher, mentor, and advisor to my students, guiding them towards excellence.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2000 | All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, IND, PHD, Microbiology |
| 1993 | University of Delhi, Delhi, IND, MS, Cell Biology |
| 1991 | University of Delhi, Delhi, IND, BS, Zoology |
Postgraduate Training
| 2002-2004 | Research Fellowship, Evolutionary Genomics, Molecular Evolution, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO |
| 2000-2000 | Research Training, Molecular Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratories, Woodshole, MA |
| 1999-2002 | Research Fellowship, Population Genetics, Evolutionary Epidemiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT |
Board Certifications
| 2015 | American Society for Clinical Pathology-Board of Certification - Molecular Biology |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of School of Health Professions, Division of Academic Affairs, Sr VP Office, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2017 - 2021
Assistant Professor, Department of School of Health Professions, Division of Academic Affairs, Sr VP Office, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2011 - 2017
Associate Professor (With Tenure), University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 2010 - 2011
Assistant Professor, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 2004 - 2010
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Education Coordinator-Undergraduate Program in Molecular Genetic Technology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2011 - 2014
Honors & Awards
| 2024 | Elected Member. Conferred the Title: University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor, The University of Texas Kenneth I. Shine MD Academy of Health Science Education |
| 2021 | MD Anderson Distinguished Educator, MD Anderson Acadmey of Health Science Educuation |
| 2020 | University of Texas System Regents Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Texas System |
| 2017 | Faculty Inductee, The Alpha Eta Society, The National Scholastic Honor Society for Allied Health Professions |
| 2016 | Faculty Educator of the Month, The University of Cancer MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2015 | Fellow, Association of Clinical Scientists |
| 2010 | Red and Black Mentor Award, University of Louisville |
| 2008 | Favorite Faculty Award, University of Louisville |
| 2006 | Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, Oak-Ridge Association of Universities |
| 2006 | Favorite Faculty Award, University of Louisville |
| 2000 | James Hudson Brown-Alexander Brown-Coxe Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University |
| 2000 | Emerging Infectious Disease Fellowship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta [declined] |
| 1998 | Special Student Honor Oration Award, American Society for Microbiology |
| 1997 | Young Investigator Award, International Society for Chemotherapy |
| 1993 | JRF/NET National Fellowship, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India |
| 1993 | National Research Fellowship, University Grants Commission, Government of India [declined] |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Selvaraj Anand S, Wu CT, Bremer J, Bhatti M, Treangen TJ, Kalia A, Shelburne SA, Shropshire WC. Identification of a novel CG307 sub-clade in third-generation-cephalosporin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae causing invasive infections in the USA. Microb Genom 10(2), 2024. PMID: 38407244.
- Esplen HP, Yang RK, Kalia A, Tang Z, Tang G, Medeiros LJ, Toruner GA. Recurrent Somatic Copy Number Alterations and Their Association with Oncogene Expression Levels in High-Grade Ovarian Serous Carcinoma. Life (Basel) 13(11), 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 38004332.
- Shropshire WC, Strope B, Selvaraj Anand S, Bremer J, McDaneld P, Bhatti MM, Flores AR, Kalia A, Shelburne SA. Temporal dynamics of genetically heterogeneous extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli bloodstream infections. mSphere 8(4):e0018323, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 37427953.
- Yang H, Garcia-Manero G, Sasaki K, Montalban-Bravo G, Tang Z, Wei Y, Kadia T, Chien K, Rush D, Nguyen H, Kalia A, Nimmakayalu M, Bueso-Ramos C, Kantarjian H, Medeiros LJ, Luthra R, Kanagal-Shamanna R. High-resolution structural variant profiling of myelodysplastic syndromes by optical genome mapping uncovers cryptic aberrations of prognostic and therapeutic significance. Leukemia 36(9):2306-2316, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35915143.
- Aryal NK, Pant V, Wasylishen AR, Parker-Thornburg J, Baseler L, El-Naggar AK, Liu B, Kalia A, Lozano G, Arur S. Constitutive Dicer1 phosphorylation accelerates metabolism and aging in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 116(3):960-969, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30593561.
- Li X, Arias CA, Aitken SL, Galloway Peña J, Panesso D, Chang M, Diaz L, Rios R, Numan Y, Ghaoui S, DebRoy S, Bhatti MM, Simmons DE, Raad I, Hachem R, Folan SA, Sahasarabhojane P, Kalia A*, Shelburne SA*.. Clonal Emergence of Invasive Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis Deconvoluted via a Combination of Whole-Genome Sequencing and Microbiome Analyses. Clin Infect Dis 67(3):398-406, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29546356, *, Equal Contribution.
- Perpich JD, Kalia A*, Price CTD, Jones SC, Wong K, Gehring K, Kwaik YA*.. Divergent evolution of Di-lysine ER retention vs. farnesylation motif-mediated anchoring of the AnkB virulence effector to the Legionella-containing vacuolar membrane. Sci Rep 7(1):5123, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28698607 *, Co-corresponding Authors.
- Petrosyan V, Holder M, Ajami NJ, Petrosino JF, Sahasrabhojane P, Thompson EJ, Kalia A, Shelburne SA. Complete Genome Sequence of Streptococcus mitis Strain SVGS_061 Isolated from a Neutropenic Patient with Viridans Group Streptococcal Shock Syndrome. Genome Announc 4(2), 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27056234.
- Evers C, Patel K, Petrosyan V, Morrison C, Varghese V, Chu RA, Baig A, Thompson EJ, Chase M, Hu PC, Kalia A. Draft Genome Sequences of Four Genetically Distinct Human Isolates of Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis. Genome Announc 3(5), 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26430051.
- Putty K, Marcus SA, Mittl PR, Bogadi LE, Hunter AM, Arur S, Berg DE, Sethu P, Kalia A. Robustness of Helicobacter pylori Infection Conferred by Context-Variable Redundancy among Cysteine-Rich Paralogs. PLoS One 8(3):e59560, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23555707.
- Kersulyte D, Kalia A, Gilman RH, Mendez M, Herrera P, Cabrera L, Velapatiño B, Balqui J, Paredes Puente de la Vega F, Rodriguez Ulloa CA, Cok J, Hooper CC, Dailide G, Tamma S, Berg DE. Helicobacter pylori from Peruvian amerindians: traces of human migrations in strains from remote Amazon, and genome sequence of an Amerind strain. PLoS One 5(11):e15076, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 21124785.
- Al-Khodor S, Price CT, Kalia A*, Abu Kwaik Y*. Functional diversity of ankyrin repeats in microbial proteins. Trends Microbiol 18(3):132-9,, 2010. e-Pub 2009. PMID: 19962898.
- Ogura M, Perez JC, Mittl PR, Lee HK, Dailide G, Tan S, Ito Y, Secka O, Dailidiene D, Putty K, Berg DE, Kalia A. Helicobacter pylori evolution: lineage- specific adaptations in homologs of eukaryotic Sel1-like genes. PLoS Comput Biol 3(8):e151, 2007. e-Pub 2007. PMID: 17696605.
- Albert TJ, Dailidiene D, Dailide G, Norton JE, Kalia A, Richmond TA, Molla M, Singh J, Green RD, Berg DE. Mutation discovery in bacterial genomes: metronidazole resistance in Helicobacter pylori. Nat Methods 2(12):951-3, 2005. e-Pub 2005. PMID: 16299480.
- Aspholm-Hurtig M, Dailide G, Lahmann M, Kalia A, Ilver D, Roche N, Vikström S, Sjöström R, Lindén S, Bäckström A, Lundberg C, Arnqvist A, Mahdavi J, Nilsson UJ, Velapatiño B, Gilman RH, Gerhard M, Alarcon T, López-Brea M, Nakazawa T, Fox JG, Correa P, Dominguez-Bello MG, Perez-Perez GI, Blaser MJ, Normark S, Carlstedt I, Oscarson S, Teneberg S, Berg DE, Borén T. Functional adaptation of BabA, the H. pylori ABO blood group antigen binding adhesin. Science 305(5683):519-22, 2004. PMID: 15273394.
- Kalia A, Bessen DE. Natural selection and evolution of streptococcal virulence genes involved in tissue-specific adaptations. J Bacteriol 186(1):110-21, 2004. PMID: 14679231.
- Bessen DE, Kalia A. Genomic localization of a T serotype locus to a recombinatorial zone encoding extracellular matrix-binding proteins in Streptococcus pyogenes. Infect Immun 70(3):1159-67, 2002. PMID: 11854196.
Books (edited and written)
- Schutzbank TE, Dunbar SA, Sundin T, Anderson KM, Babady E, Broukhanski G, Das S, Dolinger DL, Hemarajata P, Kalia A, Pillai D Schroeder A. Molecular Methods for Genotyping and Strain Typing of Infectious Organisms. CLSI Guideline MM24. First. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, 2021.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2018 - 2019 |
| Title: | Integration of digital-droplet (ddPCR) PCR based diagnostic assays in the Diagnostic Genetics (DG) molecular genetics and genomics core-curriculum |
| Funding Source: | MD Anderson Cancer Fund |
| Role: | Project Leader |
| Date: | 2016 - 2016 |
| Title: | Project-based core curriculum development initiative (PICCDIn) for training the next generation molecular technologist |
| Funding Source: | UT Academy of Health Sciences |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| ID: | 71225 |
| Title: | Origin and evolution of the FCT-genomic island required for streptococcal pathogenesis |
| Funding Source: | American Society for Microbiology |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Evolution of virulence in commensal and pathogenic streptococci |
| Funding Source: | Oak Ridge Association of Universities |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
Patient Reviews
Molecular Genomics students acquire skills in genome data acquisition and computational biology–for the progress of personalized genomic medicine
Graduates of Diagnostic Genetics c/o ’17; My big award every year-graduates employed straight out of college or move on to higher academic pursuits
CPRIT-CURE Undergrad Summer Research Symposium 2021
MS-DGG group meetings move to Zoom, Fall 2020 – COVID-19 era
CV information above last modified September 18, 2024