Deepshika “Shika” Ramanan, PhD, is an Assistant professor at the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Salk Institute. Her area of interests include maternal transfer of immunity, and the impact of breastmilk on offspring immune health, particularly infection and autoimmunity. Her lab also studies how maternal immunity can be transferred for multiple generations, and how the maternal immune system changes during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Ramanan earned her B.Sc. at Winona State University and PhD in immunology and inflammation at New York University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and has received numerous awards including the Damon Runyon Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award and STAT Wunderkind Award.