Download N-Link-Fall_Winter 2016

Newsletter of
the AAISCR
Volume VII Issue 1
November 2016
Mission Statement (Founded in 1994)
In this issue
 Mission Statement
The American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR) is a
non-profit and a non-political organization established to promote communication among Indian Scientists working in Cancer research specialty areas. The organization will provide infrastructure support in utilization of information and
resources available to those who are starting their career as scientists. The organization will focus on the following activities and help scientists in finding answers to the cure of cancer.
 Editorial

Promote scientific interactions by collaborative research
 Presidential address

Exchange of ideas and technologies

Share scientific information and experiences

Provide honorariums/scholarships for scientific excellence

Help translate the scientific discoveries into clinical applications

Help identify jobs, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students
 Scientist Spotlight
 Research Highlights
 Meeting Report
 2016 Annual
Meeting Awardees
 Announcements
 Upcoming Meetings

Membership
application
Venue will be announced at a future date & posted to the AAISCR website
(www.AAISCR.ORG).
Visit our updated web
site www.aaiscr.org
N-LINK (Newsletter) is a periodic communication of The American
Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR)
Volume VII, Issue I
Page 2
American Association of Indian
Scientists in Cancer Research
(Founded on April 11, 1994)
Website: www.aaiscr.org
Editorial
Board of Directors
Aniruddha Ganguly
Surinder Batra
Dhayan Chandra
Gokul M. Das
Varsha Gandhi
Rita Ghosh
Rakesh Kumar
Kapil Mehta
Neelam Mukherjee
Debasis Mondal
Harikrishna Nakshatri
Subrata Sen
Shyam Sharan
Sujay Singh
Saraswati Sukumar
Rajeswar Rao Tekmal
Meghana Trivedi
Shahid Umar
Ratna K. Vadlamudi
Arti Patel Varanasi
Mansukh Wani
President
Aniruddha Ganguly
Vice President
Debasis Mondal
Mansukh Wani
Treasurer
Aniruddha Ganguly
Secretary
Meghana Trivedi
Anjana Saxena
N-LINK (Newsletter)
Harikrishna Nakshatri (Chair)
Rita Ghosh
Arti Patel Varanasi
Neelam Mukherjee
Debasis Mondal
Kapil Mehta
Subrata Sen
Rajeshwar Rao Tekmal
www.aaiscr.org
As I write this editorial for the first time, many thoughts came to my
mind and the major one being how hard it is to write a general article than a
scientific article.
During well-attended and highly successful annual AAISCR meeting
in New Orleans, the board decided to restart the newsletter twice a year.
The main purpose was to engage AAISCR community through out the year.
We are in the era of news overload through both print and social media. Average number of business-related emails we receive now is 121, which is
likely to increase to 140 by 2018. There is a natural tendency to press
“delete” button after receiving an email with an attachment. We hope our
newsletter will not meet the same fate and the information provided are useful for young investigators for networking and to establish a mentoring relationship with more experienced investigators.
Another goal of this newsletter is to highlight ground breaking and
paradigm shifting work done by investigators of Indian origin. Few of us
may find overall scientific premise of the study appealing while others may
find the work of practical use in their research. I believe two articles highlighted in this issue meet both criteria. We apologize for not including several other worthy publications in this section and we welcome contributions
from the community in future newsletters. Please contact me or editorial
board members if you would like to contribute.
Many of us left our motherland many years ago but still follow the
events back home. We feel proud when Indian cricket team or any other
sportsperson does well at international events. Our feelings are similar when
one of our colleagues receives national and international recognition for
their contributions to science. In addition to recognizing distinguished scientists at our annual event, we are highlighting their success in the newsletter. We are very pleased to highlight career of Dr. Rakesh Jain, recipient of
2013 US National Medal of Science from President Obama as well as a
member of all three branches of US National Academies. Despite his busy
schedule, he took time to provide information we requested.
Our editorial team worked hard in putting together this newsletter
and made my task very easy. I sincerely thank all of them for their hard
work. We appreciate your comments and contributions to further improve
the newsletter.
~ Harikrishna Nakshatri, Ph.D.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 3
Presidential Address
Dear Colleagues:
It is an honor and privilege to serve AAISCR as the President. For the last 24 years
AAISCR has been serving community of cancer researchers with integrity, loyalty, generosity and respect, and this tradition will continue for many years to come.
It has been realized that AAISCR best serves by connecting scientists of similar interests,
promoting collaborations, exchanging scientific ideas, mentoring, and recognizing scientific talents via various award mechanisms.
As you know, we are experiencing an unprecedented explosion of knowledge and discoveries in almost every
area of cancer research. In order to excel in this environment, one might find benefit of collaborating with
investigators of common interest to bring technologies and skill sets needed to achieve specific scientific
goals. In this regard, AAISCR is a platform to get connected with cancer researchers from a variety of research backgrounds. In addition, AAISCR presents an opportunity to discuss grant-related questions and NIH
funding initiatives with NIH Program Directors attending AAISCR Annual Meetings as panel members for
the grant-related discussion forum.
We understand that researchers and students coming from outside the USA with diverse backgrounds may
experience challenges at various levels including coping with the new environment in addition to acquiring
knowledge and learning new skills and technologies in a fast-paced environment. To address these challenges,
AAISCR has developed “mentoring program” for researchers. Please visit our web site, www.aaiscr.org, to
learn about the program and use this opportunity to advance your career. We want to know that there are
many experienced and well-established investigators available and willing to offer you guidance at different
levels.
In an effort to appreciate research excellence and encourage new and established investigators, AAISCR
Award Committees have been recognizing achievements of American Indian Scientists or otherwise through
various awards. These awards are testament of scientific excellence.
We encourage you to take an active role in this organization and certainly welcome your suggestions to make
this organization better and stronger. This is your organization, and we need your help to better serve the
AAISCR community. Please let me (email: [email protected]) know today rather than tomorrow if you
are interested to play an active role and we will be glad to get you involved.
It is with great pleasure I inform that we have revived periodic release of AAISCR News Letters (N-Link) is
an effort to connecting with the community of AAISCR scientists in between annual meetings and sharing
useful information and news, and keeping the community updated on year-round activities of AAISCR. Many
thanks to our News Letter team for their efforts to publish this issue of the N-Link.
Let us work together to advance cancer research and patient care. It is an endeavor worth pursuing.
With best wishes and regards,
Aniruddha Ganguly, Ph.D.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 4
Scientist Spotlight
Rakesh K. Jain, Ph.D., A. W. Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology (Tumor Biology), Director, E.L. Steele Laboratories, Department of Radiation Oncology, Harvard
Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, 100
Blossom Street, Cox 7, Boston, MA 02114.
It is highly appropriate to list few of his many accomplishments
before describing his career path.
 In 2016, Dr. Jain received the US National Medal of Science from President Obama (awarded on May 19, 2016):
 “For pioneering research at the interface of engineering and oncology, including tumor microenvironment, drug delivery, and imaging;
and for discovering groundbreaking principles guiding the development and novel use of drugs for cancer and non-cancerous diseases”
 Rare distinction of being a member of all three branches of the
U.S. National Academies (the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences ) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
 Selected as one of the top 1% cited researchers in Clinical Medicine by Thomson-Reuters Web of
Science (www.highlycited.com) with 650 publications, >76,000 citations, and h-factor=133
 One of 50 Oncology Luminaries chosen on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology
 Honorary doctorates from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, KU Leuven, Belgium, and
IIT-Kanpur, India
 75 awards from engineering and medical professional societies/institutions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology
(ASCO) Science of Oncology Award, 2014 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)
Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship Award
 A mentor to more than 200 Master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students from over a dozen different disciplines
 1993-2000 and 2015-2022 Outstanding Investigator Award, National Cancer Institute, National
Institutes of Health
Dr. Rakesh Jain is a pioneer in the area of tumor microenvironment. He was committed to studying
mechanisms associated with overcoming drug delivery barriers in solid tumors in an era when such
research was not at the frontline. Dr. Jain integrated knowledge from engineering, optics, mathematics, physiology, immunology, and cellular and molecular biology to understand tumor biology. This
multidisciplinary approach has led to groundbreaking discoveries in tumor biology, drug delivery, in
vivo imaging, bioengineering, and bench-to-bedside translation. His pioneering work established the
new paradigm that normalization of vasculature is essential for effective treatment of malignant and
non-malignant diseases that afflict more than 500 million of people worldwide, and formed the basis
of more than25 clinical trials and multiple drug approvals in the United States and worldwide.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 5
A courageous journey from a chemical engineer to a world-renowned cancer researcher- : Dr. Jain received his chemical engineering degree from IIT, Kanpur in 1972, MS and PhD degrees in 1974 and 1976 in chemical
engineering from the University of Delaware. He served as assistant professor of chemical engineering
at Columbia University (1976 to 1978), and as assistant (1978-79), associate (1979-83) and full professor (1983-1991) of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He spent his 1983-84 sabbatical year as a Guggenheim Fellow in the departments of chemical engineering at MIT, bioengineering
at UCSD and radiation oncology at Stanford; and his 1990-91 sabbatical as a Humboldt Senior Scientist-Awardee at the Institute of Pathophysiology of University of Mainz, and the Institute of Experimental Surgery of University of Munich. As of 1991, Dr. Jain is the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of
Radiation Oncology (Tumor Biology) at Harvard Medical School, and Director of Edwin L. Steele Laboratories of Tumor Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Jain explained his journey in an interview, published in Campuskrant, after receiving his honorary
degree from KU Leuven, Belgium in 2015, stating: In those days, Indians had the reputation of being very good
in mathematics but not so good at experiments; as a young doctoral researcher, I wanted to change that stereotype. He
got the chance to change the stereotype in 1974 when he came in contact with the well-known tumor
pathophysiologist Pietro Gullino, MD, at the National Cancer Institute. He was curious to know
whether anyone had systematically looked into how much of a given drug actually made it into the tumor and the answer was “no”. That was the beginning of his quest to understand the tumor microenvironment, vasculature, and how abnormalities in the microenvironment affect drug delivery and efficacy. His engineering background became very handy, as there were no tools to study this complex
problem and the next twenty years of his career were dedicated for developing cutting-edge tools to
decipher the tumor microenvironment. These tools enabled him to put forward a radical concept that
normalizing tumor vasculature is essential for effective drug delivery, particularly in the era of “hot”
anti-angiogenic therapy and multi-billon dollar investments by industry in developing anti-angiogenesis
therapies. Sounds familiar? Even with these innovative tools and ideas - he had difficulty in getting
funded because he was swimming against the tide. He says:Especially in the early years, when what I was doing was 180 degrees from what the field was trying to do at the time. Today, there are still skeptics. But I cannot blame
them because it’s human nature. Whether it’s art or science, in every human endeavor any time someone proposes a radically new idea it’s never immediately embraced. It is discouraging but one should not give up. I always tell my students
that. Don’t be afraid to cross boundaries. My advice is to get out of your comfort zone. I’m proud that I took a chance as
a chemical engineer.
After completing his middle school in Lalitpur, UP, where he was born on December 18, 1950, Jain
attended Model High School in Jabalpur, MP (1963-66). After a gap year because of being underage,
he attended the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (1967-72).
Rakesh Jain is the oldest of ten children – five boys followed by five girls. Even after being in the US
for 44 years, Jain is very close to his siblings and their families in India.
Jain is married to Jacqueline A. Samson, PhD, who is also on the Harvard Medical School faculty.
They have 14 year old twin daughters.
Dr. Jain: I am very grateful to my family members for their love, inspiration, patience and support.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 6
Research Highlights from Scientists of Indian Origin
In this section, we highlight outstanding articles that were published recently by Indian scientists. We
apologize for not citing other excellent articles published by our scientists due to space limitation.
Athuluri-Divakar SK, Vasquez-Del Caprio RV, Dutta K, Baker SJ, Cosenza SC, Basu I, Gupta
YK, Reddy MVR, Ueno L, Hart JR, Vogt PK, Mulholland D, Guha C, Aggarwal AK, and Reddy EP. A small molecule RAS-mimetic disrupts Ras association with effector proteins to
block signaling. Cell 165, 643-655, 2016 (PMID:27104980).
Activating mutations in Ras proto-oncogene are observed in multiple cancers including deadly pancreatic and lung cancers. Decades of research by academia and industry have failed to come up with a
drug that can target activated Ras protein. Ras lacks druggable pockets or cavities. NCI recently established a “Manhattan Project” focused on developing drugs targeting Ras and has earmarked millions
of dollars. In the meantime, in New York, Dr. Reddy and his colleagues were quietly developing drugs
that may target Ras. Although not apparent in the paper, it appears that their discovery is somewhat
accidental, nonetheless significant. Their efforts were to identify targets of the drug rigosertib, which is
in Phase III clinical trial for myelodysplastic syndrome. Rigosertib was initially developed as an inhibitor of PLK1. In affinity purification studies, rigosertib bound preferentially to Ras binding domains
(RBD) containing proteins including Ral-GDS, Raf, and PI3K. Subsequent worked showed the ability
of rigosertib to inhibit heterodimerization between cRAF and B-RAF. Furthermore, the drug reduced
the activity of both wild type and mutant K-Ras. The drug had therapeutic effects in K-rasG12D genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer. Critically, in ongoing clinical trials of patients
with myelodysplastic syndrome, better response was noted in patients with monosomy of chromosome 7 and trisomy of chromosome 8, two cytogenetic abnormalities that are associated with Ras activation. Very promising finding with immediate translational potential!
Mou H, Vinarsky V, Tata PR, Brazauskas K, Choi SH, Crooke AK, Zhang B, Solomon GM,
Turner B, Bihler H, Harrington J, Lapey A, Channick C, Keyes C, Freund A, Artandi S, Mense M, Rowe S, Engelhardt JF, Hsu Y, and Rajagopal J. Dual SMAD signaling inhibition enables long-term expansion of diverse epithelial basal cells. Cell Stem Cell 19, 217-231, 2016
(PMID:27320041)
Replenishment of non-transformed primary epithelial cells for in vitro functional studies has proven
extremely difficult as primary cells undergo replicative senescence after few divisions. Few advances to
grow such cells on irradiated mouse fibroblasts with supplemented ROCK inhibitors are reported
(American Journal of Pathology 180:599-607-PMID 22189618). Dr. Rajgopal and his colleagues have
developed an innovative method to grow primary epithelial cells by reprogramming the signaling pathways without the need for feeder layer. Mou et al. successfully replicated functional airway epithelial
cells on plates pre-coated with 804G-conditioned medium when supplemented with dual inhibitors of
TGFb/BMP. More so this technique is applicable to epithelial cells derived from all three germ layers.
Although the cells grown under this condition are still enriched for basal epithelial cells instead of luminal cells from which cancers typically originate, the technique has the potential to change the way
we validate the function of genes mutated in cancer.
Volume VI, Issue I-II
Page 7
23rd AAISCR Awards Recognized Established and Young Indian Scientists for
Excellence in Cancer Research
The 23rd Annual Meeting of American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research
(AAISCR, Inc.) was held on April 18, 2016 in a ballroom at the Holiday Inn DowntownSuperdome, New Orleans. The meeting was attended by many well-known scientists including Dr.
Shankar Adhya (Senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, an elected member of the
National Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences), and
bright and energetic young scientists.
AAISCR Lifetime Achievement Award was given to a scientist who has made significant fundamental contributions to cancer research including treatment, either through a single scientific discovery or a body of work, and must have had a lasting impact on cancer research and demonstrated a lifetime commitment to progress against cancer.
Dr. Sankar Mitra (Full Member and Professor at Houston Methodist Hospital and Research Institute, TX) received Lifetime Achievement Award for many of his fundamental discoveries in the
area of repair of alkylation and oxidative DNA damage. Dr. Mitra and his colleagues codiscovered the suicide enzyme for repairing mutagenic O-6 alkylguanine, and were the first to
clone its human ortholog and named MGMT (O-6-Methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase).
MGMT methylation status has been routinely used in making clinical decisions. His group discovered and characterized two additional human DNA glycosylases which Dr. Mitra named NEIL1
and 2. These along with OGG1 and NTH1 provide major repair activity for oxidative base damage in nuclear and mitochondrial genomes.
Dr. Raju S. K. Chaganti (Tenured Member and Professor, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) received Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifetime studies on the genetics
of human cancer focusing on leukemia, B-cell lymphoma, and adult male granulose cell tumors.
One of his contributions is the discovery of novel chromosomal translocations and cloning and
characterization of deregulated genes at the breakpoints and their role in biology and clinical behavior of the disease. This is illustrated by identification of the translocations involving the promiscuously rearranging chromosomal band 3q27 in diffuse large B cell lymphoma, followed by
cloning and characterization of the BCL6 gene from that chromosomal site, and evaluating its
clinical importance, the latter by correlative analysis of a large group of patients. BCL6 is now recognized as a key gene in the regulation of normal B-cell development in the germinal center, and
routinely used for making clinical decisions.
AAISCR Outstanding Scientist Award recognized novel, and significant biomedical research which
has led to important contributions in basic and translational cancer research, cancer diagnosis, cancer prevention, or treatment of patients with cancer.
Volume VI, Issue I-II
Page 8
Dr. Adhip P. N. Majumdar (Professor, Wayne State University School of Medicine, MI) was
awarded for his contributions in elucidating the patho-physiology of age-related changes in the
gut mucosa specifically those which lead to the development of malignancy. With respect to the
involvement of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in gastrointestinal carcinogenesis, Dr. Majumdar’s group
was the first to demonstrate that age-related increase in adenomatous polyps in the colon was not
only associated with activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) but also increase in
CSCs in the colonic mucosa suggesting a relationship between EGFR and CSCs in the aging colon.
Dr. Shivendra Singh (Professor, University of Pittsburgh, PA) was awarded for his contributions
in cancer prevention research. His studies with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) have shown,
for the first time that PEITC is bioavailable in mouse prostate after dietary administration. More
importantly, dietary PEITC administration significantly decreased prostate cancer incidence and
burden in a transgenic mouse model. Mechanistic studies revealed apoptosis induction and angiogenesis suppression in prostate cancer chemoprevention by PEITC. These observations provide
scientific basis for clinical evaluation of PEITC for prevention of prostate cancer. Dr. Singh’s
group is also the first to provide critical preclinical data supporting cancer chemopreventative potential of broccoli-constituent sulforaphane and its potential application for prostate cancer prevention.
AAISCR rewarded excellence in research conducted by young investigators (junior faculty, postdoctoral fellow and graduate student) to encourage their research activities in cancer and cancerrelated biomedical research. This year Young Investigator Awards were presented to the following
bright budding scientists for their outstanding research presented at the American Association for
Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
In the Postdoctoral Fellow/Junior Faculty category, Dr. Girijesh K. Patel (University of South Alabama) was awarded for his research presentation entitled “Chemotherapy-induced exosomal secretion promotes chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer cells”, and Dr. Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli
(University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio) was awarded for her research presentation on “The role of proto-oncogene PELP1 in breast cancer stem cell maintenance and therapy
resistance”.
In the Graduate Student category, Saswati Karmakar was awarded for her research presentation
entitled “hPaf1/PD2 interacts with OCT3/4 in maintenance of the self-renewal process of ovarian cancer stem cells”, and Suprit Gupta was awarded for his research presentation entitled
“Alterations in endothelin axis during pancreatic acinar to ductal metaplasia”. Both are graduate
students at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE.
AAISCR awards are testament of scientific excellence that helps promote career development, and
mark distinction in their scientific career. AAISCR appreciates high quality reproducible research
that may become meaningful overtime to the cancer research community.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 9
Awards were presented to post-doctoral fellows and graduate students who presented their
work at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting. Fourteen postdoctoral fellows and 8 graduate students competed for these awards and six member judging
committee reviewed their abstracts and selected winners.
Postdoc Category
Graduate Student Category
Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli
Saswati Karmakar
UT Health Science Center at San Antonio
[email protected]
University of Nebraska Medical Center
[email protected]
Girijesh K. Patel
Suprit Gupta
University of South Alabama
[email protected]
Fred and Pamela Buffet Cancer Center
University of Nebraska Medical Center
[email protected].
Announcements

24th AAISCR Annual Meeting will be held on Monday April 3, 2017 in Washington DC. The
venue will be announced later and posted on our website (www.aaiscr.org) as well. We look forward to seeing you and your friends and colleagues at the meeting.

In a couple of months, you will receive an announcement from us to submit your accepted for
presentation AACR abstract to the AAISCR Young Investigator Award Committee for consideration of an award. We request principal investigators to encourage their young investigators, including postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, to submit their abstracts on time. Details will be
available at the AAISCR website (www.aaiscr.org).

The AAISCR Senior Scientist Awards Committee is engaged in selecting Lifetime Achievement
and Outstanding Scientist awardees for 2017.
Newsletter of the AAISCR
Page 12
List of upcoming meetings of interest (in India)
2nd Indian Cancer Congress
08 - 12 November, 2017 | Bengaluru
http://www.indiancancercongress2017.com
Evidence Based Management of Cancers in India Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. 24th to 26th February 2017
https://tmc.gov.in/m_events/Events/conference
36th Annual Conference of Indian Association for Cancer Research
The 21st Century - War on Cancer
Amala Cancer Research Centre Thrissur - Kerala February 9-11, 2017
Organizing Secretary, Dr. Ramadasan Kuttan 9447123071
email: [email protected]
World Congress on Drug Discovery & Development-2016
November 23-25, 2016
J.N.TATA AUDITORIUM INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
BENGALURU, INDIA.
http://www.drugdiscoveryconference.org
Volume VII, Issue I
Page 14
Happy Thanksgiving
Request for articles:
The editorial board welcomes your submission for our newsletter. You can write on
immigration, finances, career development, request for reagents, chemicals, availability of positions, notable publications, achievements, appointments, promotions,
significant accomplishments of the members, technical tips, availability of various
career opportunities, etc. Please e-mail articles to Dr. Harikrishna Nakshatri
([email protected]), Dr. Arti Varanasi ([email protected])
and Dr. Debasis Mondal ([email protected]).