Rashmi Karki

Program: Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Current advisor: Ben Garcia, PhD

Undergraduate university: Kathmandu U., 2015

Enrollment year: 2021

Research summary
The goal of my research is to understanding the mechanistic role of epigenetic inhibitors on global histone post-translational modifications to pinpoint substrate speicificity and off-target effects in cancer

My project aims to understand how epigenetic inhibitor changes the global landscape of histone PTMs and other cellular responses, study the function of H2A.Z acetylation and SMYD3 on histone H2A in cancer cell. We will map genome wide binding sites for histone H2A.Z acetylation and investigate its role in gene expression.

Graduate publications
Zahn E, Xie Y, Liu X, Karki R, Searfoss RM, de Luna Vitorino FN, Lempiäinen JK, Gongora J, Lin Z, Zhao C, Yuan ZF, Garcia B. 2025 Development of a High-Throughput Platform for Quantitation of Histone Modifications on a New QTOF Instrument. Mol Cell Proteomics, 24(1):100897. PMCID: PMC11787651

Xiao Y, Awasthee N, Liu Y, Meng C, He MY, Hale S, Karki R, Lin Z, Mosterio M, Garcia BA, Kridel R, Liao D, Zheng G. 2024 Discovery of a Highly Potent and Selective HDAC8 Degrader: Advancing the Functional Understanding and Therapeutic Potential of HDAC8. J Med Chem, 67(15):12784-806. PMCID:

Searfoss RM, Karki R, Lin Z, Robison F, Garcia BA. 2023 An Optimized and High-Throughput Method for Histone Propionylation and Data-Independent Acquisition Analysis for the Identification and Quantification of Histone Post-translational Modifications. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom, 34(11):2508-17. PMCID: PMC11017827