Sahajpal, Nikhil

Fellow - Laboratory Genetics and Genomics

Sahajpal, Nikhil

Dr. Sahajpal is a Laboratory Genetics and Genomics (LGG) fellow at the Greenwood Genetic Center. Before joining GGC, Dr. Sahajpal worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Augusta University, GA, US, where he was involved in investigating molecular and cytogenetic methodologies for prenatal, postnatal, hematological malignancies and solid tumor applications. As the world struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Sahajpal played a key role in establishing COVID-19 FDA-EUA approved diagnostic testing and research at Augusta University and is a key contributor of the COVID-19 host genome SV consortium.

Contact Information

Office: (864) 388-1712
[email protected]

Education

  • Bachelors in Pharmacy, MMU, Haryana, India
  • Master in Pharmacology, KLE University, Belgaum, India
  • Ph.D. (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab, India

Awards

Dr. Sahajpal has been the recipient of several international awards, including, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Senior Research Fellowship Award (by the Government of India), the Developing Country Eye Research Fellowship (DECRF) award by the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (2017), the second-place best technologist award at the Annual Cancer Genomics Consortium meeting for two consecutive years (2020 and 2021), and the ACMG Laboratory Genetics and Genomics Next-generation Fellowship award (2022).

Selected Publications

  • Sahajpal NS, Lai CY, Hastie A, Mondal AK, Dehkordi SR, van der Made CI, Fedrigo O, Al-Ajli F, Jalnapurkar S, Byrska-Bishop M, Kanagal-Shamanna R et al. Optical genome mapping identifies rare structural variations as predisposition factors associated with severe COVID-19. Iscience. 2022 Feb 18;25(2):103760.
  • Sahajpal NS, Mondal AK, Njau A, Petty Z, Chen J, Ananth S, Ahluwalia P, Williams C, Ross TM, Chaubey A, DeSantis G. High-Throughput Next-Generation Sequencing Respiratory Viral Panel: A Diagnostic and Epidemiologic Tool for SARS-CoV-2 and Other Viruses. Viruses. 2021 Oct 14;13(10):2063.
  • Sahajpal NS, Mondal AK, Ananth S, Njau A, Ahluwalia P, Kota V, Caspary K, Ross TM, Farrell M, Shannon MP, Fulzele S. Clinical validation of a sensitive test for saliva collected in healthcare and community settings with pooling utility for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mass surveillance. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. 2021 Jul 1;23(7):788-95.
  • Sahajpal NS, Mondal AK, Njau A, Ananth S, Jones K, Ahluwalia PK, Ahluwalia M, Jilani Y, Chaubey A, Hegde M, Kota V. Proposal of RT-PCR–Based Mass Population Screening for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (Coronavirus Disease 2019). The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. 2020 Oct 1;22(10):1294-9.
  • Sahajpal NS, Barseghyan H, Kolhe R, Hastie A, Chaubey A. Optical genome mapping as a next-generation cytogenomic tool for detection of structural and copy number variations for prenatal genomic analyses. Genes. 2021 Mar 11;12(3):398.
  • Sahajpal NS, Mondal AK, Ananth S, Njau A, Ahluwalia P, Jones K, Ahluwalia M, Okechukwu N, Savage NM, Kota V, Rojiani AM. Clinical performance and utility of a comprehensive next-generation sequencing DNA panel for the simultaneous analysis of variants, TMB and MSI for myeloid neoplasms. PloS one. 2020 Oct 19;15(10):e0240976.
  • Sahajpal N, Kowluru A, Kowluru RA. The regulatory role of Rac1, a small molecular weight GTPase, in the development of diabetic retinopathy. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2019 Jul 3;8(7):965.

Meet the Shenal Family

Our daughter, Ryleigh, was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal deletion shortly after she was born in 2010. Since we received her diagnosis, the Greenwood Genetic Center has become part of our family. They made certain that we did not feel alone, and they continue to provide ongoing, compassionate care for our child. The impact they have had on our family and others across the globe everyday is immeasurable. We can't imagine walking this journey without...

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