Principal Investigator
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- Dr. Sejal Patwardhan
Dr. Sejal Patwardhan
Principal Investigator
Honors and Recognitions
- Assistant professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) Mumbai (2021)
- DBT- Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA) from Dept. of Biotechnology, Government of India (2016)
- IITB post-doctoral fellowship (IPDF) award from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), India (2015)
- Outstanding Doctoral Thesis award from HBNI, Dept. of Atomic energy, Government of India (2015)
- Visiting Scholar fellowship and grant from Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan (2013-2016)
- Scholarship for Indo-Japan collaborative project from Centre for International Collaboration in Science (CICS) – Chennai, India (2013)
- International Travel award from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India (2013)
- DAE Graduate Fellowship Award from Dept. of Atomic Energy, Government of India (2009)
- Junior research Fellowship from CSIR (2008)
Research Interests
- Autocrine and bystander signaling in cancer
- Cancer secretome
- Radioresistance coupled metastasis
- Biomarkers for cancer prognosis
- Influence of ECM dynamics on cancer progression
- Role of tumor derived exosomes in cancer mechanotransduction and invasion
RESEARCH
Despite the spectacular advances made in cancer imaging/monitoring modalities and treatment protocols, cancer treatment often yields limited success stemming from notorious factors namely metastasis, chemo/radioresistance and bystander (non-targeted) effects of therapeutic agents. Hence, investigating multiple facets of cancer biology in an integrative manner to discover the Achilles heel of cancer is of paramount importance for development of smart and effective theranostics. The broad goal of Patwardhan laboratory is to understand multifactorial regulation of cancer exacerbation. With a holistic approach of unravelling signaling networks induced by biochemical and biophysical cues encoded by tumor microenvironment, we aim to identify key regulators at the crossroads of cancer metastasis, therapy resistance and bystander effects in lung and breast cancer models. To achieve this, we employ various approaches covering proteomics, genomics, cell biology and cellular biophysics. Intriguingly, the key regulators projected from basic research are also evaluated in clinical scenarios to test their translational potential either as diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers or as therapeutic targets with the ultimate aim of improving the therapeutic gain.
