Shikta is an epidemiologist with a wide range of expertise in different disease areas, such as cardiovascular, inflammation and oncology. Shikta started working at AstraZeneca in 2021 as a contractor in the oncology real world evidence (RWE) team. She then took a permanent role in the Centre of Genomics Research (CGR) as an associate principal scientist managing the CVRM portfolio in the Phenomics team. Shikta is currently the Scientific Lead in the RWE generation team at the Oncology Business Unit (OBU), AZ UK. Before joining AstraZeneca, Shikta worked for a specialised drug discovery company, C4X Discovery, in the neurological area. Shikta also worked as a senior data analyst at Roche, where she applied her epidemiological and visualisation skills to real world evidence datasets.Shikta obtained her PhD in epidemiology from Imperial College London, and her research examined the genetic and environmental factors related to longitudinal growth modelling in obesity. This resulted in several publications in high impact journals. She received various Medical Research Council Early Career grants and did her postdoc at Imperial College London and University College London. Her research explored the genetic associations in Obesity and Type 2 diabetes in ethnic populations. She has 18 years of experience in successfully delivering genetic and epidemiological projects with her international collaborators.Outside work, Shikta enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. She is also a keen supporter of women in STEM and an active member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA).