Rate My Professor Shivani Pasricha

Dr Shivani Pasricha is a molecular geneticist and microbiologist at the University of Melbourne. She earned her PhD from the Genetics Department at the University of Melbourne, where she authored several pioneering articles on fungal pathogenesis, with a focus on the dimorphic fungal pathogen Talaromyces marneffei (formerly Penicillium marneffei). Her doctoral research examined differences between non-pathogenic and pathogenic growth forms of this opportunistic fungus using systems-wide approaches including transcriptomics and metabolomics.

Dr Pasricha currently serves as Laboratory Head in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne. She leads the Pasricha Lab, which employs molecular and genomic approaches to improve the detection and prevention of infectious diseases, with a strong emphasis on sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis and gonorrhoea, emerging pathogens including mpox, and antimicrobial resistance. The lab develops and validates rapid, point-of-care diagnostics using CRISPR-Cas systems for multiplexed detection of pathogens and resistance markers, aimed at supporting clinical decision-making in diverse settings including resource-limited environments. Her work involves close collaboration with clinical researchers, public health agencies, and laboratory networks such as the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. Key publications include studies on CRISPR-Cas12a assays for monkeypox virus detection (Lancet Microbe, 2023), CRISPR-Cas-based diagnostics for sexually transmitted infections (Lancet Microbe, 2025), genomic characterisation of Treponema pallidum lineages (Lancet Microbe, 2022), and integrative genomics approaches for CRISPR diagnostic design (Communications Biology, 2025). Dr Pasricha holds an honorary position at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory.