Shalaka Wahane, Ph.D.

Shalaka provides technology expertise and scientific direction to incoming genomic startups in the SF Bay Area. Prior to joining Illumina Inc. in 2022, Shalaka worked as a project scientist at UCLA in the labs of Drs. Michael Sofroniew and Daniel C. Lu, where she led preclinical studies in ALS, utilizing her deep expertise in neurodevelopment, CNS inflammation, and neurodegeneration. Shalaka earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Neurobiology from the University of Freiburg, Germany and continued her scientific career with postdoctoral work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.