Nissi Varki is a Professor of Pathology at UC San Diego. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor in Residence at the Department of Pathology at UCLA. While working on NIH-funded basic research analyzing the mechanisms of cancer metastasis, she started four histopathology core laboratories at UCSD, helping investigators analyze normal and diseased tissues.

She received her medical degree at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India, and became US Board Certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, following pathology residencies at Creighton University, and St. Louis, Missouri. She completed postdoctoral training in tumor immunology at Washington University and then at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in San Diego.

Her interests focused in immunohistology and pathology towards comparisons of humans and great apes, discovering several differences of known or potential biomedical importance.