Medical & Surgical Urology
Open Access

Choudhry Shweta

Biography

Shweta Choudhry, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology at University of California San Francisco. Dr. Choudhry received her Bachelors of Science in Zoology from Indias University of Delhi with Honors. She earned a masters degree in Biotechnology from the University of Pune and a doctorate from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Dr. Choudhry completed her postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Medicine at UCSF where she conducted human genetics research in asthma. In 2006 Dr. Choudhry was promoted to a faculty position in the Department of Medicine. In 2009 she joined the Department of Urology as a faculty member and participant in the multidisciplinary K12 Urologic Research (KURe) Career Development Program. As a student Dr. Choudhry was awarded the gold medal in Biotechnology for her Masters thesis. She has received the American Thoracic Society Breakthrough Opportunities in Lung Disease award and the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program New Investigator award to support her research. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics and serves as a reviewer for several genetics and clinical journals. As a member of the Urology faculty Dr. Choudhry continues her interest in population genetics and mapping of disease susceptibility loci. Her research seeks to identify genetic risk factors for benign urologic disorders including hypospadias, male infertility and urinary incontinence.

Research Interest

Dr. Choudhry’s research focuses on understanding the genetic basis of complex human diseases using genetic epidemiology and molecular genetics approaches. Complex human diseases involve multiple genes and environmental factors. Her research work involves implementation of novel and state-of-the art genetic and statistical methods and genotyping and sequencing techniques such as those used for whole genome sequencing, genome-wide association, admixture mapping, pathway-based and gene-environment studies to identify susceptibility loci for complex diseases. Her population-based genetics research program called Genetics and Outcomes of Benign Urologic Diseases (GOBUD) is to investigate underlying genetic factors that cause benign urologic disorders including hypospadias, male infertility and urinary incontinence. The program focuses on identification of genetic factors and gene-environmental interactions that influence incidence and clinical outcomes of urologic diseases with long term goal of improving our understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases and eventually leading to improved interventions for prevention and therapy