Akanksha Thawani, PhD

Dr. Akanksha Thawani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She earned her B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, graduating with the Institute Silver Medal and the highest cumulative GPA in her class. She completed her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University, where she trained with Dr. Sabine Petry, Dr. Howard A Stone and Dr. Josh Shaevitz. Her doctoral work uncovered design principles of microtubule nucleation and mitotic spindle assembly, including a core microtubule nucleation module and regulatory mechanisms that enable robust yet adaptable cytoskeletal self-organization.

Akanksha carried this mechanistic mindset into genome biology during her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow in the laboratories of Eva Nogales and Kathleen Collins. There, she pioneered biochemical reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy approaches to capture mobile genetic elements in the human genome, producing the first atomic-resolution structures of the human LINE-1 retrotransposon machinery engaged with its native RNA and DNA substrates. Her work revealed how LINE elements hijack human DNA replication and demonstrated how retrotransposon mechanisms can be repurposed for efficient, RNA-only genome insertion without double-strand breaks. She also helped establish the structural and mechanistic basis for R2 retrotransposon insertion and contributed to the development of targeted, donor-free transgene insertion strategies at the human rDNA locus.

At Columbia, the Thawani Laboratory investigates how mobile elements shape genomes across the tree of life and how their mechanisms can be harnessed for biotechnology. The lab integrates structural biology, biochemistry, functional genomics, and genome engineering to illuminate retrotransposon biology in health and disease while developing next-generation genome-writing technologies. Dr. Thawani is committed to rigorous and supportive mentorship. Her work and mentoring have been recognized through major early-career support, including a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface and the Damon Runyon Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists.