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Gautam Adhikary, PhD

Academic Title:

Assistant Professor

Primary Appointment:

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Education and Training

Dr. Gautam Adhikary obtained MS Degree in Biochemistry from University of Calcutta, India. Dr. Adhikary completed PhD research work in the area of cell membrane biology and drug delivery system from Bose Institute, Jadavpur University, India.  Dr. Adhikary had postdoctoral training in Cardiovascular Biology from Cleveland Clinic Foundation and in Skin carcinogenesis from Case Western Reserve University.

Research/Clinical Keywords

Regulation of cancer stem cell survival.

Highlighted Publications

D. Grun, G. Adhikary, R.L. Eckert. VEGF-A acts via neuropilin-1 to enhance epidermal cancer stem cell survival and formation of aggressive and highly vascularized tumors. Oncogene, (2016), 35: 4379--4387.

K. Saha, G. Adhikary, R.L. Eckert. MEP50/PRMT5 reduces gene expression by histone arginine methylation and this is reversed by PKCd/P38d signaling. J Invest Dermatol, (2016), 136:214-224.

G. Adhikary, D. Grun, S. Balasubramanian. C. Kerr, J. M. Huang, R.L. Eckert. Survival of skin cancer stem cells requires the Ezh2 polycomb group protein. Carcinogenesis, (2015), 36: 800-810.

M. L. Fisher, G. Adhikary, W Xu, C. Karr, J.W. Keillor, R.L. Eckert. Type II transglutaminase stimulate epidermal cancer stem cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Oncotarget, (2015), 6, 20525-20539.

E. A. Rorke, G. Adhikary, C. A. Young, D. R. Roop, R.L. Eckert. Suppressing AP1 factor signaling in the suprabasal epidermis produces a keratoderma phenotype. J Invest Dermatol, (2015), 135:170-180.

E. A. Rorke, G. Adhikary, C. A. Young, R. H. Rice, P. M. Elias, D. Crumrine, J. Meyer, M. Blumenberg,  R.L. Eckert. Structural and biochemical changes underlying a keratoderma-like phenotype in mice lacking suprabasal AP1 transcription factor. Cell Death Dis, (2015), 6:e1647.

K. Saha, G. Adhikary, S. S. Kanade, E. A. Rorke, R. L. Eckert. P38d regulates p53 to control p21Cip1 expression in human epidermal keratinocytes. J. Biol. Chem, (2014), 289, 11443-11453.

G. Adhikary, D. Grun, C. Kerr, S. Balasubramanian, E. A. Rorke, M. Vemuri, S. Boucher, J. R. Bickenbach, T. Hornyak, W. Xu, R. L. Eckert. Identification of a population of epidermal squamous cell carcinoma cells with enhanced potential for tumor formation. PLoS One, (2013), 8 (12): e84324.

Research Interests

Regulation of cancer stem cell survival.

Polycomb Group (PcG) protein are epigenetic regulator of gene expression that suppress the tumor suppressor gene expression. Recently our and other group’s work have shown that in cancer stem cell, polycomb  protein Ezh2 over express and inhibition of Ezh2 activity markedly reduce tumor volume in vivo. Cancer develop by cancer stem cell leads to increased vascularization compared to regular cancer cell. We are interested to understand the underlining mechanism of vascularization and prevention by therapeutic intervention. Our present work also showed the tissue transglutaminase (TG2) expression elevated in both human tumor and in vivo animal model. TG2 has many functions, recently we and another group have shown that elevation of TG2 expression leads to cancer cells to cancer stem cell in nature. Our goal are to reduce tumor burden by suppressing polycomb protein level or TG2 function by combination of drug treatment.