Breast cancer is a leading cause of mortalityglobally. The common sites of metastasis include lung, bone and brain. Thebreast cancer brain metastasis is associated with poor prognosis and oncedetected the patient do not survive for more than a year. There are no standardtherapeutic regimens for such metastasis and that targeted therapy is far frombeing developed. In my present laboratory we utilize FDA approved neural stemcells in treatment of brain tumors and brain metastasis. My research involvesgeneration of therapeutic neural stem cells using various molecular biologyapproaches and assessing their in vivo efficacy for the treatment of cancer. Inanother interesting endeavor I am exploring the molecular mechanisms for breastcancer brain metastasis in triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). I haveidentified a set of genes differentially expressed in brain metastasis through invitro, in vivo and in silico analysis. I am currentlypursuing the consequences of compromised levels of these genes in conferringbrain metastatic ability.

PUBLICATIONS

1)     X. F. Liu, S. Johnson, S. Liu, D. Kanojia, W. Yue, U. Singh, Qian Wang, Qi Wang, Q. Nie, H. X. Chen. Nonlinear growth kinetics of breast cancer stem cells: Implications for cancer stem cell targeted therapy. Scientific Reports, Vol 3: 2473 (2013). PMID:23959163

2)      D. Kanojia, W. Zhou, J. Zhang, P.K. Lo, Q. Wang and H. Chen. Proteomic profiling of cancer stem cells derived from primary tumors of HER2/Neu transgenic mice. Proteomics, Volume 12 (22), Pages 3407-3415 (2012). PMID:22997041

3)     D. Kanojia, S.S. Sawant, A.M. Borges, A.D. Ingle and M. M. Vaidya. Alterations in cytokeratins and associated proteins during 4- nitroquinoline-1- oxide induced rat oral carcinogenesis. Journal of Carcinogenesis, Volume 11:14 (2012). DOI: 10.4103/1477-3163.100861

4)      P.K. Lo*, D. Kanojia*, X. Liu, U.P. Singh, F.G. Berger, Q. Wang and H. Chen. The Combined Markers of CD49f and CD61 identify Her2/neu-Induced mammary tumor initiating cells that are potentially derived from luminal progenitors and maintained by the TGFβ Signaling. Oncogene, Volume 31(21), Pages 2614-2626 (2012). PMID: 21996747

            * Equal contribution

5)        Wang S, D. Kanojia, P.K. Lo, V. Chandrashekaran, X. Duan, F. Berger, Q. Wang and H. Chen. Enrichment and Selective Targeting of Cancer Stem Cells in Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines. Human Genetics and Embryology, S2:006 (2012).

6)      D. Kanojia and H. Chen. The microenvironment of breast cancer stem cells. In: Mehmet Gunduz et al (Eds). Breast Cancer Cells / Book 4, ISBN 978-953-307-766-6. Intech Publisher. Page 237-246 (2011).

7)     M. M. Vaidya and D. Kanojia. Keratins: Markers of differentiation or regulators of differentiation? Journal of Biosciences, Vol 32(4), Pages 629-734 (2007). PMID: 17762135

8)      D. Kanojia and M. M. Vaidya. 4 Nitroquinoline-1-oxide induced experimental oral carcinogenesis: Review. Oral Oncology, Volume 42(7), Pages 655-667 (2006). PMID: 16448841