CSB Faculty

Abhik Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor/Research

University of Calcutta, India, 1986

210-567-0849
bandyopadhy@uthscsa.edu

I joined CSB in Dr. LuZhe Sun's laboratory as a research faculty in 2001. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Calcutta University on my studies in diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia at the Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, Calcutta. My post-doctoral experience includes 1) cellular and molecular characterization of carcinogen induced mammary carcinoma utilizing mouse mammary gland organ culture model system at the Tumor Biology Laboratory in University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2) drug induced Cytochrome P450 gene expression and regulation studies in tissue culture and rodent models and molecular mechanism of active drug transport into the mammary gland in rodent models at the department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky at Lexington and 4) evaluating the role of transforming growth factor beta in cancer in in vitro and animal models in LuZhe Sun's laboratory in department of Pharmacology of the University of Kentucky at Lexington.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from primary tumor sites to distant organs to initiate secondary tumors, is the prime cause of lethality in cancer patients. The current treatment of chemotherapy and radiation can effectively target the primary tumors but often fail to prevent or cure recurrence. Better insight into the cellular and molecular biology of metastasis is highly needed for a preventive and curative therapy. Scientific evidence indicates that stem cells provide powerful models of the cellular and molecular origins of many cancer types. Recent identification of stem like self renewing and drug resistant cancer cells as the progenitors of breast, prostate, brain and other malignant tumors raise the exciting prospect that effective targeting of these cells could prevent tumor recurrence following initial treatment. But the origin and how cancer stem cells drive the multistage cancer progression is still unknown.

My research interest includes:

1. Elucidating the cellular and molecular interaction of the normal adult stem cells and tumor cells with different malignant potential.
2. Characterization of stem/progenitor like cells isolated from primary, immortal and tumor cells.

1. Therapeutic modulation of pro-oncogenic growth factor signaling by systemic administration of large and small molecule inhibitors to inhibit tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis (soft tissues and bone) in xenograft and experimental animal models of human breast and prostate cancer.
2. Role of estrogen in hormone independent breast cancer metastasis.

Research Techniques:

• Murine models of human cancer for pre-clinical studies of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis (Lung, brain and bone)


• Isolation and characterization of stem-like cancer cells by mammosphere culture and flow cytometry


• Isolation and culture of mesenchymal and hematopoietic stem cells from murine bone marrow


• Murine mammary gland organ culture and regeneration of mammary glands by mammary fat pad transplantation


• Primary, immortal and tumor cell culture for carcinogenesis, morphogenesis, gene expression and Elisa studies


• Immunohistochemistry and immuno-fluorescence staining

PUBLICATIONS:
Bandyopadhyay A, Wang L, Chin SH, Sun LZ. (2007) Inhibition of skeletal metastasis by ectopic ERalpha expression in ERalpha-negative human breast cancer cell lines. Neoplasia. 2007 Feb;9(2):113-8.

Bandyopadhyay A, Agyin JK, Wang L, Tang Y, Lei X, Story BM, Cornell JE, Pollock BH, Mundy GR, Sun LZ. (2006) Inhibition of pulmonary and skeletal metastasis by a transforming growth factor-beta type I receptor kinase inhibitor. Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 1;66(13):6714-21.

Bandyopadhyay A, Lopez-Casillas F, Malik SN, Montiel JL, Mendoza V, Yang J, Sun LZ. (2002) Antitumor activity of a recombinant soluble betaglycan in human breast cancer xenograft. Cancer Res. 2002 Aug 15;62(16):4690-5.

Bandyopadhyay A, Cibull ML, Sun LZ. (1998) Isolation and characterization of a spontaneously transformed malignant mouse mammary epithelial cell line in culture. Carcinogenesis. 1998 Nov;19(11):1907-11.

Bandyopadhyay AM, Chaudhary I, Robertson LW, Gemzik B, Parkinson A, Blouin RA. (1993) Expression of a male-specific cytochrome P450 isozyme (CYP2C11) in fa/fa Zucker rats: effect of phenobarbital treatment. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1993 Dec;307(2):386-90.