Nikhil Madhusudhan is currently a hematology-oncology fellow in the Physician-Scientist Training Program at UT Southwestern. He joined the Tagliabracci lab in 2024 for his post-doctoral fellowship. His scientific interests span biochemistry, chemical biology, structural biology, and genetics. He hopes to uncover hitherto uncharacterized enzymatic activities that play a role in the pathogenesis of cancer.

Prior to joining the Tagliabracci lab, Nikhil completed his PhD at UT Southwestern through the combined MD/PhD program with Dr. Deepak Nijhawan in the department of biochemistry. During his PhD, Nikhil used a chemo-proteomics approach to identify mitochondrial Complex I as the target of a selective lung cancer toxin. He subsequently conducted mechanistic studies to understand the metabolic and genetic basis of Complex I toxicity in lung cancer cell lines and found that aspartate production via reductive carboxylation is essential for resistance to Complex I inhibition.

When Nikhil is not in the lab, he can be found spending time with his wife Jane, daughter Anya and cat Doodles. In a former life, Nikhil was an avid PC gamer. He had dreams of going professional, but unfortunately he didn’t have what it takes.