
Svasti Haricharan, Ph.D.
Lab Website
Svasti Haricharan's Research Focus
Dr. Haricharan's lab focuses on the role of DNA damage repair in inducing resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer, particularly the role of HER2/4 in mismatch repair deficiency, and in identifying early driver mutations in breast cancer formation.
Svasti Haricharan's Bio
Haricharan received her B.Sc. from Stella Maris College in Chennai, India, her M.Sc. from the University of Leicester, UK , and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. Haricharan completed 2 years of postdoctoral training at MD Anderson Cancer Center studying the effect of mutation load on breast cancer, before moving to Baylor College of Medicine for her second postdoctoral position focused on breast cancer genomics, where she was promoted to Research Assistant Professor. As junior mentored faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, she developed a research program studying non-canonical roles for DNA damage repair defects in cancer. In October 2018, Haricharan joined the faculty at Sanford Burnham Prebys as an Assistant Professor in the Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Immunology Program.
Funding awards and collaborative grants
Department of Defense Breast Research Program Breakthrough Award
Susan G Komen Career Catalyst Research Award
Honors and recognition
2015-17: SU2C Laura Ziskin Postdoctoral Fellow
2013-15: NCI Cancer Prevention Research Training Fellowship

Publications
Decellularized organ biomatrices facilitate quantifiable in vitro 3D cancer metastasis models.
VandenHeuvel SN, Farris HA, Noltensmeyer DA, Roy S, Donehoo DA, Kopetz S, Haricharan S, Walsh AJ, Raghavan S
Soft Matter 2022 Aug 10 ;18(31):5791-5806
Endocannabinoid dysfunction in neurological disease: neuro-ocular DAGLA-related syndrome.
Bainbridge MN, Mazumder A, Ogasawara D, Abou Jamra R, Bernard G, Bertini E, Burglen L, Cope H, Crawford A, Derksen A, Dure L, Gantz E, Koch-Hogrebe M, Hurst ACE, Mahida S, Marshall P, Micalizzi A, Novelli A, Peng H, Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine., Rodriguez D, Robbins SL, Rutledge SL, Scalise R, Schließke S, Shashi V, Srivastava S, Thiffault I, Topol S, Undiagnosed Disease Network., Qebibo L, Wieczorek D, Cravatt B, Haricharan S, Torkamani A, Friedman J
Brain 2022 Oct 21 ;145(10):3383-3390
The DNA damage repair landscape in Black women with breast cancer.
Mazumder A, Jimenez A, Ellsworth RE, Freedland SJ, George S, Bainbridge MN, Haricharan S
Ther Adv Med Oncol 2022 ;14:17588359221075458
Mismatch repair testing in breast cancer: the path to tumor-specific immuno-oncology biomarkers.
Venetis K, Sajjadi E, Haricharan S, Fusco N
Transl Cancer Res 2020 Jul ;9(7):4060-4064
Retraction Note: Tumor necrosis factor overcomes immune evasion in p53-mutant medulloblastoma.
Garancher A, Suzuki H, Haricharan S, Chau LQ, Masihi MB, Rusert JM, Norris PS, Carrette F, Romero MM, Morrissy SA, Skowron P, Cavalli FMG, Farooq H, Ramaswamy V, Jones SJM, Moore RA, Mungall AJ, Ma Y, Thiessen N, Li Y, Morcavallo A, Qi L, Kogiso M, Du Y, Baxter P, Henderson JJ, Crawford JR, Levy ML, Olson JM, Cho YJ, Deshpande AJ, Li XN, Chesler L, Marra MA, Wajant H, Becher OJ, Bradley LM, Ware CF, Taylor MD, Wechsler-Reya RJ
Nat Neurosci 2022 Jan ;25(1):127
HER2 Activation and Endocrine Treatment Resistance in HER2-negative Breast Cancer.
Mazumder A, Shiao S, Haricharan S
Endocrinology 2021 Oct 1 ;162(10)