Research Assistant Professor

Dr. Lopamudra Das Roy received her Doctoral Degree in Genetics in 2007 from Assam University, India. She has worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Genetics in Garden City College, Bangalore and has been associated with a research project “The Interrelationship between exogenous corticosteroids and mental retardation” in Delhi University, India. In 2007 Dr. Roy joined Dr Pinku Mukherjee's laboratory at The Mayo Clinic in Arizona in the Department of Immunology as a Post doctoral fellow. She has recently moved with Dr. Mukherjee to UNCC as a Post Doctoral Research Associate and is continuing her research in Dr Mukherjee's laboratory at UNCC. Her project is to “Study the influence of arthritis on breast cancer associated metastasis”. She studies the incidence and the immunological mechanisms of metastasis in the lungs and bones of mice with a) autoimmune arthritis that are induced to develop breast carcinomas, and b) spontaneous breast cancer that are induced to develop autoimmune arthritis. She has identified the key cytokines associated with the enhanced metastasis and is now finding ways to thertarapeutically target those. Her other project involves identifying the specific tyrosines(s) in the cytoplasmic tail of a tumor-associated protein, MUC1, that we believe is involved in the oncogenic function of MUC1 in pancreatic cancer cells. MUC1 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is overexpressed and aberrantly glycosylated in most solid adenocarcinomas and is recently identified as an oncogene.

Academic Qualifications:

PhD: Department of Life science, Assam University, India. Topic: “Study the genotoxicity of some marketed pharmaceuticals in mammalian test system in vivo: Studies on drug-mutagen interaction”.

Positions

2010 (October) till present Research Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC)

2008 (September) – 2010 (September) Post Doctoral Research Associate, UNCC

2007 (September) - 2008 (August) Post Doctoral Fellow, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale.

2003-2005 - Lecturer, Department of Genetics, Garden City College, Bangalore, India 

2001-2002 - Research Scholar, Hormone Research Lab, Delhi University, Delhi, India 

Honors and Awards

Press Releases:

Websites:

http://www.aacr.org/home/public--media/aacr-press-releases.aspx?d=2748#.T33R3jty_EM.email

http://publicrelations.uncc.edu/news-events/news-releases/research-news-mechanicsm-found-connecting-metastatic-breast-cancer-and-art

1993: Certificate of Excellency in All India Talent Search Examination. 

1998: Awarded with First Class 2^nd Position (2^nd Highest score in the University) in the Bachelor’s Degree program from Assam, India. 

2000: Awarded with First Class 2^nd Position (2^nd Highest score in the University) in the Masters Degree program from Assam, India

2004-07: Pre-doctoral Scholarship from the Central Government of India.

2009-2012: Awarded with postdoctoral grant on behalf of the Fiscal year 2008(FY08) Department of Defense (DOD) Breast cancer research program (BCRP). Title of the proposal: “Evaluate the Mechanism of Enhanced Metastasis Induced by Arthritis”. Proposal rated Outstanding with a score of 1.3. Role: Principal investigator.

 2009: Awarded with postdoctoral grant from Susan Komen Foundation but declined since I was awarded with DOD postdoctoral grant in the same year.

July 2009 - June 2010: Breast Cancer Research, 11:4/R56 (Highly accessed article in Breast Cancer Research, BMC, and BMC Women’s health)

2011: Judge for the fifth annual graduate student poster competition in the 2011 Charlotte Biotechnology conference.

2011 onwards: Review committee: Member of review committee for the undergraduate honors students at UNCC and International Member of review committee for graduate students from Assam University, India.

2011: Millenial Magazine Spring/Summer 2011, Page 12, Title: “Inspiring Discovery”. Article published on my work on breast and pancreatic cancer.

2009-2012: Reviewer for Cancer Biomarkers, PLoS ONE, BMC Cancer, Journal of Translational Medicine and International Journal of Biomedical Science

2009-2012: Invited as guest speaker for Conferences in USA, China, Canada and India.

2012: International Advisory Committee Member, Department of Life Sciences, Assam University, India

2012: “Arthritis augments breast cancer metastasis: role of mast cells and SCF/c-Kit signaling”, Identified as Newsworthy for the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held in Chicago. The work was reported through a wide range of consumer media outlets (newspapers, magazines, radio and television), trade publications, and social media platforms and press conference.

Publications

1. Das Roy, L., Mazumder, M., and Giri, S. (2008). Effects of low dose radiation and vitamin C treatment on chloroquine induced genotoxicity in mice. Environ. Mol. Mutagenesis. 49:488- 495. .
2. Das Roy, L., and Giri, S. (2007). Genotoxicity of ciprofloxacin in mammalian test system. Journal of Pediatric Oncall. 70:39-40. (National Indian Journal).
3. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, L.T., and Mukherjee, P. (2008). Breast cancer associated metastasis is significantly increased in a model of autoimmune arthritis. Available online: http://precedings.nature.com/documents/2632/version/1.
4. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, L.T., Schettini, L.J., Gruber, H.E., and Mukherjee, P. (2009). Breast cancer associated metastasis is significantly increased in mice with autoimmune arthritis. Breast Cancer Research. 11:56. 
5. Das Roy, L., Sahraei, M., Subramani, D., Besmer, D., Nath, S., Tinder, T., Kandavel,   S., Lee, Y., Hwang, SL., Gendler, S., and Mukherjee, P. (2011). MUC1 enhances invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells by inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Oncogene nature publication, doi 10.1038/onc.2010.526.
6. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, L.T., Schettini, L.J., Gruber, H.E., and Mukherjee, P. (2011). Collagen induced arthritis increases secondary metastasis in MMTV-PyV MT mouse model of mammary cancer. BMC Cancer, 11:365.
7. Besmer M, L., Curry, J., Das Roy, L., Tinder, T., Schettini, J., Hwang, S., Lee, Y., Gendler, S.J., and Mukherjee, P. (2011).Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma mice lacking mucin 1 have a profound defect in tumor growth and metastasis.  Cancer Res. 2011 Jul 1;71(13):4432-42.
8. Sahraei, M., Das Roy, L., Curry, J., Tinder, L.T.,Nath, S., Besmer, D., Kidiyoor, A., Dalia, R.,  Gendler, S.,  and Mukherjee, P. (2011). MUC1 plays a crucial role in the oncogenic signaling pathways of human pancreatic cancer cells. Oncogene nature publication, doi 10.1038/onc.2011.651
9. Schettini, L.J., Tinder, L.T., Das Roy, L., Lustgarten, L., Gendler, S.J., and Mukherjee, P. (2011). Intratumoral Delivery of CpG-Conjugated Anti-MUC1 Antibody Enhances NK Cell Anti-Tumor Activity. Accepted with revisions, Clinical Immunology Immunotherapy.
10. Das Roy, L., Giri, S., Singh, S., and Giri, A. (2012). Effects of Low Dose Radiation and Vitamin C Treatment on Metronidazole Genotoxicity in Mice. Submitted: Mutagenesis (Mutage-12-021).
11. Das Roy, L, Sahraei, M., Gruber, H.E., and Mukherjee, P. (2010).  Treatment with anti-IL 17A coupled with COX-2 inhibitor significantly decreases breast cancer associated metastasis in models of induced and chronic arthritis. To be submitted.
12. Das Roy, L., Curry, J., Sahraei, M., Kidiyoor, A., Besmer, D., Gruber, H.E and Mukherjee, P. (2012). Arthritis augments breast cancer metastasis: Role of mast cells and SCF/c-Kit signaling. To be submitted.

1. Das Roy, L., and Giri, S. (2007). Induction of Chromosomal Abnormality, Micronucleus and Sperm Shape Abnormality by Metronidazole: A Commonly Used Pharmaceutical. Oral Presentation: International conference on Biomarkers in health and Environmental Management & Environmental Mutagen Society of India: XXX11 Annual Meet, Coimbatore.
2. Das Roy, L., and Giri, S. (2007). Effects of low dose radiation and vitamin C treatment on metronidazole induced genotoxicity in mammalian test system in vivo. Oral presentation: Indian Academy of Pediatrics 22^nd Annual Conference, Assam.
3. Das Roy, L., and Giri, S. (2007). Induction of Chromosomal Abnormality, Micronucleus and Sperm Shape Abnormality by Metronidazole and Vitamin C Intervention. Oral Presentation: National Conference on genomics: Impact on human health, Madhya Pradesh.
4. Das Roy, L., and Giri, S. (2007). Induction of Chromosomal Abnormality, Micronucleus and Sperm Shape Abnormality by chloroquine: A Commonly Used Pharmaceutical. Poster Presentation: 30th All India Cell Biology Conference and Symposium on - Molecule’s to Compartments: Cross- Talks and Network, New Delhi.
5. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, T., Schettini, L.J., and Mukherjee, P. (2008). Study the influence of arthritis on breast cancer associated bone metastasis. Poster Presentation: Era of Hope, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, Baltimore.
6. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, T., and Mukherjee, P. (2008). Breast cancer-associated metastasis is significantly increased in mice with autoimmune arthritis. Oral Presentation: Autumn Immunology Conference, Chicago.
7. Das Roy, L., Pathangey, B.L., Tinder, T., Gruber, H.E., and Mukherjee, P. (2009). Increased breast cancer associated metastasis in PyV MT mice induced to develop arthritis. Poster Presentation: American Association of Immunology Conference, Seattle.
8. Das Roy, L, Schettini, J.L., Sahraei, M., Gruber, H.E., Sahraei, M., and Mukherjee, P. (2010).  Treatment with anti-IL 17A coupled with COX-2 inhibitor significantly decreases breast cancer associated secondary metastasis in a model of autoimmune arthritis.  Poster presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Washington D.C.
9. Kidiyoor, A., Schettini, J., Das Roy, L., Besmer, D., and Mukherjee, P. (2011). Pancreatic tumor cells that develop within a Muc1 knock-out mice generate less immunosuppressive MDSCs in vitro.  Poster Presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Orlando.
10. Nath, S., Das Roy, L., Rao S., Tinder, T., and Mukherjee, P. (2011) The oncogenic role of MUC1 in the context of TGF-β production and signaling. Poster Presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Orlando.
11. Besmer M, L., Curry, J., Das Roy, L., Tinder, T., Schettini, J., Hwang, S., Lee, Y., Gendler, S.J., and Mukherjee, P. (2011). MUC1 increases proliferation of pancreatic cancer in vivo and in vitro through regulation of ERK1/2. Poster Presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Orlando.
12. Das Roy, L., Curry, J., Sahraei, M., Kidiyoor, A., Besmer, D., Gruber, H.E and Mukherjee, P. (2011) Evaluate the Mechanism of Enhanced Metastasis Induced by Arthritis. Poster Presentation: Era of Hope, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, Orlando.
13. Das Roy, L., Curry, J., Sahraei, M., Kidiyoor, A., Besmer, D., Gruber, H.E and Mukherjee, P. (2012) Arthritis augments breast cancer metastasis: Role of mast cells and SCF/c-Kit signaling. Poster presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Chicago.
14. Besmer,D., Kidiyoor, A., Nath, S., Das Roy, L., Curry, J., and  Mukherjee,P. (2012). Investigating the Role of IDO in MUC1 Expressing Breast Cancers. Poster presentation: Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Chicago.

Ongoing Research Support

Source: Department of Defense Breast cancer research Program: BCRP BC087792 Postdoctoral Award

Title: Evaluate the mechanism of enhanced metastasis induced by arthritis.

Role: Principal investigator

Start date: 09/01/2009