LS SHASHIDHARA is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Ashoka University. He specialises in Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolutionary biology. His group has identified key mechanisms that specify organ development and regulate growth control during embryonic development. They have also expanded their study to examine the status of these evolutionarily conserved mechanisms in epithelial cancers in human. He did his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India and holds PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK.