Research Abstract
We develop novel biotechnologies for clinical translation based on the understanding of underlying biological mechanisms and disease pathology. At a fundamental level, we are currently working on three different themes: (1) the early events of metastasis; (2) Understanding the mechanisms (such as phenotypic plasticity) that allow cancer cells to tolerate chemotherapy; and (3) Developing next generation therapeutics, including nanomedicines, that can modulate the tumor stromal contexture, including the immune cells.
Reference Publications
1. Sengupta S, Eavarone DA, Capila I, Zhao G, Watson N, Kiziltepe T, Sasisekharan R. Novel cancer therapy through temporal targeting of both tumor cells and neovasculature using a unique nanoscale delivery system. Nature 2005; 436:568-72.
2. Goldman A, Majumder B, Dhawan A, Ravi S, Goldman D, Kohandel M, Majumder PK, Sengupta S. Temporally sequenced anticancer drugs overcome adaptive resistance by targeting a vulnerable chemotherapy-induced phenotypic transition. Nature Commun. 2015; 6:6139. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7139.
3. Majumder B, Baraneedharan U, Thiyagarajan S, Radhakrishnan P, Narasimhan H, Dhandapani M, Brijwani N, Pinto DD, Prasath A, Shanthappa BU, Thayakumar A, Surendran R, Babu GK, Shenoy AM, Kuriakose MA, Bergthold G, Horowitz P, Loda M, Beroukhim R, Agarwal S, Sengupta S*, Sundaram M*, Majumder PK*. Predicting clinical response to anticancer drugs using an ex vivo platform that captures tumour heterogeneity. Nature Commun. 2015; 6:6169. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7169. (*equal authors)
4. Connor Y, Tekleab S, Nandakumar S, Walls C, Tekleab Y, Husain A, Gadish O, Sabbisetti V, Kaushik S, Sehrawat S, Kulkarni A, Dvorak H, Zetter B, R Edelman E, Sengupta S. Physical nanoscale conduit-mediated communication between tumour cells and the endothelium modulates endothelial phenotype. Nature Commun. 2015; 6: 8671. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9671.
5. Kulkarni A, Rao P, Natarajan S, Goldman A, Sabbisetti VS, Khater Y, Korimerla N, Chandrasekar V, Mashelkar RA, Sengupta S. Reporter nanoparticle that monitors its anticancer efficacy in real time. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 29. pii: 201603455.
6. Kulkarni A, Vineeth C, Natarajan SK, Ramesh A, Pandey R, Nirgud J, Bhatnagar H, Ashok D, Ajay AK, Sengupta S. A designer bifunctional self-assembling therapeutic amplifies macrophage-based immune response against aggressive cancer. Nature Biomedical Engineering 2018 Aug;2(8):589-599.
7. Gupta N, Ansari A, Dhoke GD, Chilamari M, Sivaccumar J, Mandal SK, Rai V, Biswas G, Sengupta A, Roy S, Roy M, Sengupta S. Computationally-designed affinity linker-based antibody–drug conjugates for cancer therapy. Nature Biomedical Engineering 2019 Nov;3(11):917-929
8. Goldman A, Khiste S, Freinkman E, Dhawan A, Majumder B, Mondal J, Pinkerton AB, Eton E, Medhi R, Chandrasekar V, Rahman MM, Ichimura T, Gopinath KS, Majumder P, Kohandel M, Sengupta S. Targeting tumor phenotypic plasticity and metabolic remodeling in adaptive cross-drug tolerance. Sci Signal. 2019 Aug 20;12(595). pii: eaas8779.