About Rishi
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in Professor Carolyn Bertozzi’s lab at Stanford. I completed my undergraduate studies in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Boston University, followed by my PhD in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. My graduate work with Professor Evan Miller focused on the development and application of novel voltage-sensitive dyes for imaging electrical activity in the brain.
In my postdoctoral work, I am examining microglia-neuron communication during neuroinflammation. In particular, I seek to answer large-scale questions about the role of glycan modification by microglia in establishing and maintaining neuronal network properties such as excitability, connectivity, and excitation/inhibition balance.
Selected Publications
Analyzing nested experimental designs: A user-friendly resampling method to determine experimental significance
Subthreshold voltage analysis demonstrates neuronal cell-surface sialic acids modulate excitability and network integration
Rishikesh U Kulkarni, Catherine L Wang, and Carolyn R Bertozzi.
In vivo two-photon voltage imaging with sulfonated rhodamine dyes
Rishikesh U Kulkarni, Matthieu Vandenberghe, Martin Thunemann, Feroz James, Ole A Andreassen, Srdjan Djurovic, Anna Devor, Evan W Miller
Voltage-sensitive rhodol with enhanced two-photon brightness
Rishikesh U Kulkarni, Daniel J Kramer, Narges Pourmandi, Kaveh Karbasi, Helen S Bateup, Evan W Miller
A rationally designed, general strategy for membrane orientation of photoinduced electron transfer-based voltage-sensitive dyes
Rishikesh U Kulkarni, Hang Yin, Narges Pourmandi, Feroz James, Maroof M Adil, David V Schaffer, Yi Wang, Evan W Miller
For a complete list of my publications, see my Google Scholar profile.
Coding Projects
I am interested in using Python to develop high-speed automated analysis pipelines for biological data.
I have developed SpykeMapper, a toolset for preprocessing voltage imaging data. I have also developed Hierarch, a nonparametric hypothesis testing package for analyzing hierarchical experiments common to biomedical research.
Teaching and Outreach
Lab Mentoring
I have had the opportunity to mentor five undergraduate students between my time at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. As a mentor, I try to teach my students both lab techniques and the big-picture thinking necessary to keep a scientific project moving forward. My mentees have all contributed to publications, and are now PhD or MD students at UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, UT Southwestern, and Johns Hopkins University.
Teaching Assistant at Berkeley
I have taught introductory organic chemistry to sophomores and chemical biology to a mix of juniors and seniors at UC Berkeley. In organic chemistry, I led a lab section, graded lab reports, and developed quizzes based on the material covered in lecture. In chemical biology, I developed and graded problem sets, exams, and gave a lecture for a class of 120 students.
National Science Bowl
I serve as a judge and content developer for the Department of Energy's National Science Bowl competition. I am the Subject Matter Expert for biology and chemistry questions and work as a part of a team to produce 5,000 questions a year that are heard by 14,000 students across the nation.
