Research Thrust Area:

Dr. Chanakya Nath Kundu’s (CNK) laboratory is focused on multidisciplinary aspects of Tumor Biology. This broad spectrum of research includes targeting angiogenesis and metastasis, inducing DNA damage, and inhibiting DNA repair by using several bioactive or synthetic compounds. CNK group initially focused on targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs) as they are responsible for tumor relapse and drug resistance. Presently, his laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanism of metastasis, drug resistance and cancer relapse and their signaling pathways. His team identified a novel protein, NECTIN-4, which is responsible for angiogenesis including lymph-angiogenesis, metastasis and lymph node metastasis, tumor relapse, DNA repair in different types of cancer. His team has also developed a hybrid nanoparticle which specifically kills the cancer stem cells without affecting the normal cells. CNK laboratory is extensively working in the above-mentioned domains of cancer biology for more than 10 years.

CNK laboratory is funded by different Govt. funding agencies like DBT, DST-SERB, ICMR-
BMS, ICMR-NCD, BRNS etc.

1. N-Fused Aminoimidazoles as Novel Topoisomerase IIα-Targeting Anticancer Agents. Guchhait SK, Kundu CN, Banerjee UC, Baviskar A, Madaan C, Agarwal A, Preet R, Mohapatra P, (Indian Patent Pending, Appl # 91/DEL/2011).
2. 2,4-Diamino Substituted And 4-Amino, 2-Oxy Disubstituted Pyrimidine Derivatives, A Process and Uses. Patel H M, Pawara R H, Patil CR, Kundu CN, Nayak D. 2/1421/MUM
3. Acrylmide brearing quinazolin in4(3H)-one derivatives. A process and uses thereof. Patel H M, Kundu CN Pawara R H, Patil C R, , Nayak D. 2/1422/MUM
4. 4-amino-2-oxy disubstitututed prymidine derivatives, a process and uses thereof. Patel H M, Kundu CN, Pawara RH, Patil C R, Nayak D, Iqrar A. 2/1420/MUM
5. Quinacrine-gold hybrid nanoparticle and NIR irradiation for treatment of oral cancer. Satapathy SR, Dash SR, Kundu CN. Application no. 202231059841. Publication date (U/S 11A) – 4/11/2022.
6. Nectin-4 is a soluble biomarker for the detection of cancer. Sethy C, Kundu CN. Application no. 202231059837. Publication date (U/S 11A) – 4/11/2022.
7. Polysaccharide-based wound healing patch. Das M, Das B, Kundu CN, Tripathy J. Application no. 202231059838. Publication date (U/S 11A) – 4/11/2022.
8. A novel application of i-prf for human dental pulp stem cells proliferation. Panda B, Patri G, Kundu CN, Das B. Application no. 202331016204. Publication date (U/S 11A) – 24/03/2023.

International

1. Prof. Michael D Wyatt: Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
2. Prof. Satya Narayan: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA.

National

1. Prof. Prasad V. Bharatam: Professor & Head, Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) S.A.S. Nagar Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar (Mohali)- 160062, Punjab (India).
2. Prof. Chandragouda R Patil: Department of Pharmacology, Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University.
3. Dr. Sankar Guchhait: Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S. A. S. Nagar, Mohali, Punjab 160062, India.
4. Dr. Harun Patel: Department of Pharmacology, R. C. Patel Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Shirpur- 425405, Dist. Dhule, Maharashtra, India.
5. Dr. Kunal Goutam: Department of Surgical Oncology, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre, Cuttack, 753007, Odisha, India.
6. Dr. Niranjan Rout: Department of Oncopathology, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre, Cuttack, 753007, Odisha, India.
7. Dr. Jyochanamayi Panda: Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751024, India.
8. Dr. Jasaswini Tripathi: School of Applied Sciences, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Deemed to be University), Campus-11, Patia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India.
9. Dr. Satyabrata Si: School of Chemical Technology, KIIT University, Campus-11, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India.
10. Dr. Naresh Ch Bal: School of Biotechnology, KIIT University, Campus-11, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India.
11. Dr. Birendra Kumar Bindhani: Plant Biotechnology and Nanotechnology Division, School of Biotechnology, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Deemed to be University), Campus-Patia, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India.
12. Prof. N.S. Hari Narayana Moorthy: Department of Pharmacy, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh, India.
13. Dr. C. Karthikeyan: Department of Pharmacy, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Rajalaxmi Pradhan, Ph.D. Candidate
Rajalaxmi is from Nayagarh, Odisha. She has a master’s degree in Biotechnology from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha. She is pursuing her doctoral degree on studying the role of cytokines and chemokines in the induction of cancer stem like cells (CSCs) in oral cancer cells niche and evaluated the mechanism of Resveratrol nanoparticle (Res- NP) mediated-reduction of CSCs properties in cells by using several in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo mice xenograft model system. She is funded by DST- INSPIRE-fellowship.

Email: [email protected]  [email protected]

Biswajit Das, Ph.D. Candidate

Biswajit hails from Midnapore, West Bengal, India. He has earned his M.Sc. in Zoology from Vidyasagar University. He has qualified CSIR-NET, Life Science. His current study deals with the role of Quinacrine on several cancer stem cell signaling proteins and how these signaling proteins are involved in angiogenesis and metastasis, the two crucial hallmarks for cancer progression. Biswajit’s experimental work is based on in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo (patient sample) model systems. His work is funded by ICMR-NCD-III project of Dr. C. N. Kundu.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Saptarshi Sinha, Ph.D. Candidate

Saptarshi is from Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He earned his M.Sc. in Biochemistry from Bangalore University, India. He also earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Cell and Molecular Bioscience and worked as a research assistant at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. In his doctoral research at KIIT-DU, he is working on the development of a combination of chemotherapeutic agents to target breast cancer cells by inhibiting the DNA repair pathways. He is using in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo pre-clinical model systems to address his research questions. His research is funded by ICMR-SRF fellowship.

Email: [email protected];  [email protected]

Somya Ranjan Dash, Ph.D. Candidate

Somya is from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He has earned his Master of Science in Biotechnology (Sponsored by DBT, Govt. of India) from P.G. Department of Biotechnology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He is currently working in the area of Photothermal Therapy for cancer using multifunctional hybrid nanoparticles. He uses various in vitro and in vivo approaches to understand the mechanical actions of these nanoparticles in Photothermal Therapy. He has qualified GATE Life science examination and has been funded by DST-INSPIRE, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to pursue his research work.

Email: [email protected]

Subarno Paul, PhD Candidate

Subarno belongs to Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He has completed his M.Sc. in Biotechnology from School of Biotechnology, KIIT deemed to be University. He is working on the combination of a bioactive compound and clinically trialled agent to target DNA repair in order to make effective therapeutics in colorectal cancer. His work is mainly based on evaluating the anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic potentiality of the combination therapy in different in vitro, ex vitro, ex vivo and in ovo     model systems. His work is funded by DBT funded project of Dr. C. N. Kundu.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Subhasmita Bhal, Ph.D. Candidate

Subhasmita comes from Bhadrak, Odisha, India. She has earned her M.Sc. in Biotechnology (Gold medalist) from Fakir Mohan University, Balasore. She is working on targeting the crosstalk of various cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) signaling pathways. Her current study focusses on deregulating the interaction of Wnt and Hh pathways using a nano-formulated Resveratrol (Res-Nano). She is performing in vitro, in vivo, in ovo and ex vivo to decipher the study. Her work is supported by DST-SERB project of Dr. C. N. Kundu.

Email: [email protected];[email protected]

Chinmay Das, Ph.D. Candidate

Chinmay belongs to Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India. He pursued a Master of Science in Biotechnology from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha, India. He is currently working on a combination of drugs that can induce apoptosis in buccal mucosa cancer cells. He is doing various in vivo and in vitro experiments to identify the molecular mechanisms of these combined drugs. He has qualified GATE Life science and his work has been funded by ICMR funded project of Dr. C. N. Kundu.

Email: [email protected]m

Sushree Subhadra Acharya, Ph.D. Candidate

Sushree is from Nayagarh, Odisha, India. She has completed her Master of Science in Biochemistry from P.G. Department of Biochemistry, North Orissa University, Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India. Currently, she is working in the area of Cancer Immunology. Her work is focused on finding the cancer progressive properties of immune cells in the Tumor Microenvironment using in vitro, in ovo, ex vivo, in vivo mice xenograft model systems. She has been funded by DST-INSPIRE, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to pursue her research work. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Bhaskarjyaa Chatterjee, Research Assistant

Bhaskarjyaa is from Kolkata, West Bengal. He earned his Master of Technology (M.Tech) in Biotechnology (Sponsored by DBT, Govt of India) from Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is working in the area of cancer immunology. His work is related to how a natural bioactive compound inhibits metastasis and angiogenesis in oral cancer stem cells  through inhibition of tumor-associated macrophages derived inflammatory cytokines. His work is supported by ICMR funded project of Dr. C.N. Kundu.

Email: [email protected]

Ph.D. degree awarded:

1. Dr. Gopal Kumar Choudhary, Assistant Professor, School of Biotechnology, KIIT, Odisha, India
2. Dr. Ranjan Preet, Senior Scientist, Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
3. Dr. Purusottam Mohapatra, DBT Ramalingaswami Fellow, NIPER-Guwahati, India
4. Dr. Maitree Choudhuri, Principal, Kanchrapara Govt. Engineering College
5. Dr. Dipon Das, Research Scientist, Harvard Medical School, USA
6. Dr. Shakti Ranjan Satapathy, Research Engineer, Lund University, USA
7. Dr. Sumit Siddharth, Senior Research Investigator, Syngene International Limited, India
8. Dr. Sarita Das, Research Associate, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
9. Dr. Anmada Nayak, Assistant Professor, Odisha University of Technology and Research, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
10. Dr. Krushna Chandra Hembram, Technical Superintendent, IIT Hyderabad, India
11. Dr. Sefinew Molla Bitew, Postdoctoral Fellow, Wayne State University, USA
12. Dr. Chinmayee Sethy, Postdoctoral Fellow, IIT Delhi, India.
13. Dr. Subhajit Chatterjee, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health (NIH), USA
14. Dr. Deepika Nayak, Postdoctoral Fellow
15. Dr. Mansi Priyadarshini, Postdoctoral Fellow in USA. (Dr. C.N. Kundu was Co-PI)
16. Dr. Bipasa Kar, Postdoctoral Fellow in Germany. (Dr. C.N. Kundu was Co-PI)

OPEN POSITIONS:

Post-doc position

1. If you are interested, send an e-mail ([email protected]) to me with your CV. Please mention your specific practical skills, instrument handling experience, and a one-page write-up about your thesis work. Candidates with experience in mammalian cell culture, and cancer cell biology will be preferred.
2. I can also help you write a research proposal that can be submitted to any funding agency (DBT, CSIR, SERB, or ICMR) that offers a postdoctoral fellowship. 

PhD position

1. If you are interested, send an e-mail ([email protected]) to me with your CV. Please mention your specific practical skills, instrument handling experience, and a one-page write-up about your thesis work. Candidates with experience in mammalian cell culture, and cancer cell biology will be preferred. Candidates with NET/GATE/INSPIRE fellowship will be given preference.