Academic Awards and Achievements

1. Harris award in cancer research, UNMC, NE, USA, 2010
2. Predoctoral students travel award to attain the AACR meeting, 2009 (Denver, USA)
3. Harris award in cancer research, UNMC, NE, USA, 2009
4. Abstract selected for the oral presentation at the 2008 International Student Forum
5. Student merit scholarship, B.V.Sc, O.U.A.T, India, 1997

Fellowships

1. 1. Ramalingaswami Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology, India, 2012-2017
   2. Pelotonia Postdoctoral Fellowship Ohio State University, Comprehensive cancer center Columbus, Ohio, USA , 2011- 2012
   3. Predoctoral Prostate Cancer Research Training Award Department of Defense, USA, 2009- 2010
   4. University student fellowship UNMC, NE, USA, 2008-2010
   5. Research assistantship UNMC, NE, USA, 2005-2008

Broad research activities

• Cancer pathogenesis
• Inflammation and cancer
• Cancer Metastasis

Inflammation plays a major role in cancer pathogenesis, and it could be induced by both infectious and non-infectious agents. Inflammation in tumor microenvironment could have effect on both cancer cells and stromal cells. Currently we are involved in understanding and targeting inflammation and/or infection mediated events in prostate and pancreatic cancer.

Role of bacterial infection in prostate cancer:

Like many other cancers, prostate cancer patients are susceptible to various infections. Numerous in vitro studies have suggested that in addition to stimulating immune cells, bacterial components like LPS/endotoxin could also affect many type of cancer cells through TLR4 signaling. Prostate cancer cells are known to express TLR4 and respond to LPS stimulation in vitro. Activation of TLR4 in cancer cells might have tumor promoting effect by multiple mechanisms. Our preliminary data (unpublished) is suggesting a protumorigenic effect of bacterial components on prostate cancer cells in vitro. We are in the process of validating this observation through a syngeneic orthtotopic rat prostate cancer model. This model has also created an opportunity to examine the efficacy of potential drugs against prostate cancer in vivo. We believe that the ongoing study will elucidate the mechanism behind the effect of bacterial infection on cancer cells. Combined, these studies will provide important insight about the role of infection in cancer promotion, which is an important concern for both the patient and the clinician. Furthermore, knowledge about the mechanistic aspect of endotoxin-induced effect on cancer cells might help in the effective control of cancer progression and treatment.

Understating and targeting pancreatic cancer fibrosis:

Various epidemiological studies have revealed the association of pancreatic cancer with several risk factors including smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, diabetes, age and family history. All these factors create chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of pancreas). Pancreatic cancer is characterized by a prominent desmoplastic/fibrotic reaction. It is well established that pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the principal source of desmoplasia and interact closely with cancer cells to create a tumor facilitatory micro-environment that stimulates local tumor growth and distant metastasis. Excessive ECM deposition around the tumor cells inhibits the distribution and penetration of anti-cancer drugs by decreasing the tumor vascularity and by constructing physical barriers. Therefore, any drug that could either reduce proliferation of activated PSCs and/or suppress extracellular matrix protein production by them could have potential use in pancreatic cancer associated fibrosis therapy. Our current focus is to establish reliable in vitro and in vivo models that could be exploited to screen and validate potential anti-fibrotic drugs. Our long-term goal is to identify novel anti-fibrotic dugs by drug-repositioning approach, and identify new molecular targets that play major roles in PSCs activation.

Publications from ILS, Bhubaneswar

Original research articles

1. Arjun OK, Sethi M, Parida D, Dash J, Kumar Das S, Prakash T, Senapati S. Comprehensive physiological and genomic characterization of a potential probiotic strain, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ILSF15, isolated from the gut of tribes of Odisha, India. Gene. 2024 Dec 30;931:148882. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148882.
2. Sethi M, Ok A, Dash J, Parida D, Kar S, Mishra S, Minz AP, Padhi A, Das KR, Pradhan B, Prakash T, Senapati S. Whole Genome Mining and Characterization of a New Probiotic Strain Levilactobacillus brevis ILSH3 from Handia: An Ethnic Fermented Beverage of Odisha, India. Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins. 2024 Feb 12. doi: 10.1007/s12602-024-10217-3.
3. Minz AP, Mohapatra D, Dutta M, Sethi M, Parida D, Mohapatra AP, Mishra S, Kar S, Sasmal PK, Senapati S. Statins abrogate gemcitabine-induced PD-L1 expression in pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts and cancer cells with improved therapeutic outcome. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2023 Dec;72(12):4261-4278.
4. Dash J, Sethi M, Deb S, Parida D, Kar S, Mahapatra S, Minz AP, Pradhan B, Prasad P, Senapati S. Biochemical, functional and genomic characterization of a new probiotic Ligilactobacillus salivarius F14 from the gut of tribes of Odisha. World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2023 Apr 27;39(7):171.
5. Suresh V, Behera P, Parida D, Mohapatra AP, Das SK, Kumari S, Avula K, Mohapatra A, Syed GH, Senapati S. Therapeutic role of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) for the treatment and/or management of SARS-CoV2-induced lung damage in hamster model. Eur J Pharmacol. 2023 Jan 5;938:175392.
6.  Jha A, Ahad A, Mishra GP, Sen K, Smita S, Minz AP, Biswas VK, Tripathy A, Senapati S, Gupta B, Acha-Orbea H, Raghav SK. SMRT and NCoR1 fine-tune inflammatory versus tolerogenic balance in dendritic cells by differentially regulating STAT3 signaling. Front Immunol. 2022 Sep 27;13:910705.
7. Suresh V, Dash P, Suklabaidya S, Murmu KC, Sasmal PK, Jogdand GM, Parida D, Sethi M, Das B, Mohapatra D, Saha S, Prasad P, Satoskar A, Senapati S. MIF confers survival advantage to pancreatic CAFs by suppressing interferon pathway-induced p53-dependent apoptosis. FASEB J. 2022 Aug;36(8):e22449. doi: 10.1096/fj.202101953R.
8. Minz AP, Das B, Mohapatra D, Suresh V, Mishra S, Senapati S. Gemcitabine induces polarization of mouse peritoneal macrophages towards M1-like and confers antitumor property by inducing ROS production. Clin Exp Metastasis. 2022 Jul 15. doi: 10.1007/s10585-022-10178-3.
9. Singh B, Avula K, Chatterjee S, Datey A, Ghosh A, De S, Keshry SS, Ghosh S, Suryawanshi AR, Dash R, Senapati S, Beuria TK, Prasad P, Raghav S, Swain R, Parida A, Hussain Syed G, Chattopadhyay S. Isolation and Characterization of Five Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Strains of Different Clades and Lineages Circulating in Eastern India. Front Microbiol. 2022 Jun 30;13:856913.
10. Pradeepa, Suresh V, Senapati S, Chakraborty S. AKT inhibition sensitizes EVI1 expressing colon cancer cells to irinotecan therapy by regulating the Akt/mTOR axis. Cell Oncol (Dordr). 2022 Jul 14. doi: 10.1007/s13402-022-00690-9.
11. Dutta M, Das B, Mohapatra D, Behera P, Senapati S, Roychowdhury A. MicroRNA-217 modulates pancreatic cancer progression via targeting ATAD2. Life Sci. 2022 Jul 15;301:120592. (Co-corresponding author)
12. Sethi M, Mohanty V, Mishra S, Dash J, Mahapatra S, Parida D, Mohapatra AP, Mishra R, Prasad P, Parida A, Senapati S. Targeted (PCR-based) screening of antibiotic resistance genes’ prevalence in the gut microbiota of tribal people of Nabarangpur, Odisha, India. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2021 Dec 27. doi: 10.1111/lam.13642.
13. Mohapatra D, Das B, Suresh V, Parida D, Minz AP, Nayak U, Mohapatra AP, Swain RK, Senapati S. Fluvastatin sensitizes pancreatic cancer cells toward radiation therapy and suppresses radiation- and/or TGF-β-induced tumor-associated fibrosis. Lab Invest. 2021 Nov 12. doi: 10.1038/s41374-021-00690-7
14. Pradeepa, Suresh V, Singh VK, Nayak KB, Senapati S, Chakraborty S. EVI1 promotes metastasis by downregulating TIMP2 in metastatic colon and breast cancer cells. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2021 Nov 18;142:106118.
15. Bishnoi S, Kumari A, Rehman S, Minz A, Senapati S, Nayak D, Gupta S. Fusogenic Viral Protein-Based Near-Infrared Active Nanocarriers for Biomedical Imaging. ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2021 Jul 12;7(7):3351-3360.
16. Suresh V*, Mohanty V*, Avula K*, Ghosh A, Singh B, R.  Kumar R, Parida D, Suryawanshi AR, Raghav KS, Chattopadhyay S, Prasad P, Swain RK, Dash R, Parida A, Syed GH, Senapati S.  Quantitative proteomics of hamster lung tissues infected with SARS-CoV-2 reveal host-factors having implication in the disease pathogenesis and severity. FASEB J. 2021 Jul;35(7):e21713.
17. Suresh V, Parida D, Minz AP, Sethi M, Sahoo BS, Senapati S. Tissue Distribution of ACE2 Protein in Syrian Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) and Its Possible Implications in SARS-CoV-2 Related Studies. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Jan 14;11:579330.
18. Raghav S, Ghosh A, Turuk J, Kumar S, Jha A, Madhulika S, Priyadarshini M, Biswas VK, Shyamli PS, Singh B, Singh N, Singh D, Datey A, Avula K, Smita S, Sabat J, Bhattacharya D, Kshatri JS, Vasudevan D, Suryawanshi A, Dash R, Senapati S, Beuria TK, Swain R, Chattopadhyay S, Syed GH, Dixit A, Prasad P; Odisha COVID-19 Study Group; ILS COVID-19 Team, Pati S, Parida A. Analysis of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomes Reveals Prevalence of D614G Mutation in Spike Protein Predicting an Increase in Interaction With TMPRSS2 and Virus Infectivity. Front Microbiol. 2020 Nov 23;11:594928.
19. Senapati S*, Kshatri SJ*, Prasad P*, Turuk J, Pati S, Parida A. A pilot study to investigate the fecal dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 virus genome in COVID-19 patients in Odisha, India. medRxiv 2020.05.26.20113167 (preprint submission)
20. Selim AM, Das M, Senapati SK, Jena GR, Mishra C, Nath I, Senapati S, Sethi M. Molecular detection of Theileria annulata infection in cattle by conventional PCR and quantitative real time PCR in India. J Parasit Dis. 2021 Mar;45(1):72-77.
21. Paul P, Patel P, Verma SK, Mishra P, Sahu BR, Panda PK, Kushwaha GS, Senapati S, Misra N, Suar M. The Hha-TomB toxin-antitoxin module in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium limits its intracellular survival profile and regulates host immune response. Cell Biol Toxicol. 2021 Mar 2.
22. Katoch A, Jamwal VL, Faheem MM, Kumar S, Senapati S, Yadav G, Gandhi SG, Goswami A. Overlapping targets exist between the Par-4 and miR-200c axis which regulate EMT and proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. Transl Oncol. 2021 Jan;14(1):100879.
23. Jain S*, Samal AG* , Das B*, Pradhan B, Sahu N_, Mohapatra D , Behera PK, Satpathi PS, Mohanty AK, Satpathi S, Senapati S. Escherichia coli, a common constituent of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH)-associated microbiota induces inflammation and DNA damage in prostate epithelial cells. (2020) Prostate. Aug 24. doi: 10.1002/pros.24063
24. Das, B, Senapati, S. Functional and mechanistic study reveals MAGEA3 as a pro-survival factor in pancreatic cancer cells. (2019) J Exp Clin Cancer Res. Jul 8;38(1):294
25. Sharma GP, Gurung SK, Inam A, Nigam L, Bist A, Mohapatra D, Senapati S, Subbarao N, Azam A, Mondal N. CID-6033590 inhibits p38MAPK pathway and induces S-phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in DU145 and PC-3 cells. Toxicol In Vitro. 2019 Oct;60:420-436.
26. Suresh V*, Sundaram R*, Dash P*, Sabat SC, Mohapatra D, Mohanty S, Vasudevan D, Senapati S. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor of Syrian golden hamster shares structural and functional similarity with human counterpart and promotes pancreatic cancer. (2019) Scientific Reports 9: 15507.
27. Izhar S, Gupta T, Minz AP, Senapati S, Panday AK. Influence of regional and long range transport air masses on fog water composition, contribution and toxicological response at Indo Gangetic Plain. Atmospheric Environment. Volume 214, 1 October 2019, 116888
28. Guha, D., Banerjee, A,. Mukherjee, R., Pradhan, B., Peneva, M., Aleksandrov, G., Suklabaidya, S., Senapati, S., Aich, P.: A Probiotic formulation containing Lactobacillus bulgaricus DWT1 inhibits tumor growth by activating pro-inflammatory responses in macrophages. Journal of Functional Foods. Volume 56, May 2019, Pages 232-245
29. Jain S, Dash P*, Minz A*, Satpathi S, Samal AG, Behera PK, Satpathi PS, Senapati S. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) enhances prostate cancer metastasis potentially through NF-κB activation and recurrent dexamethasone administration fails to suppress it in vivo. (2018) Prostate. September 27
30. Jena KK, Kolapalli SP, Mehto S, Nath P, Das B, Sahoo PK, Ahad A, Syed GH, Raghav SK, Senapati S, Chauhan S, Chauhan S. TRIM16 controls assembly and degradation of protein aggregates by modulating the p62-NRF2 axis and autophagy. (2018) EMBO J. Aug 24.
31. Patra D, Mukherjee S, Chakraborty I, Dash TK, Senapati S, Bhattacharyya R, and Shunmugam R.Iron(III) Coordinated Polymeric Nanomaterial: A Next-Generation Theranostic Agent for High-Resolution T1-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Anticancer Drug Delivery. (2018) ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 4 (5), pp 1738–1749
32. Pradhan B, Guha D, Naik AK, Banerjee A, Tambat S, Chawla S, Senapati S, Aich P. Probiotics L. acidophilus and B. clausii Modulate Gut Microbiota in Th1- and Th2-Biased Mice to Ameliorate Salmonella Typhimurium-Induced Diarrhea. (2018) Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins. Jun 16.
33. Katoch A, Suklabaidya S, Chakraborty S, Nayak D, Rasool RU, Sharma D, Mukherjee D, Faheem MM, Kumar A, Sharma PR, Senapati S, Kumar LD, Goswami A. Dual Role of Par-4 in abrogation of EMT and switching on Mesenchymal to Epithelial Transition (MET) in metastatic pancreatic cancer cells. (2018) Mol Carcinog. Apr 19
34. Kumari K, Das B, Adhya A, Chaudhary S, Senapati S, Mishra SK. Nicotine associated breast cancer in smokers is mediated through high level of EZH2 expression which can be reversed by methyltransferase inhibitor DZNepA . (2018) Cell Death Dis. Feb 2;9(2):152
35. Mahapatra P, Jain S, Shrestha S, Senapati S, Puppala S. Ambient endotoxin in PM10 and association with inflammatory activity, air pollutants, and meteorology, in Chitwan, Nepal. (2018) Sci Total Environ. Mar 15;618:1331-1342
36. Suklabaidya S, Das B, Ali SA, Jain S, Swaminathan S, Mohanty AK, Panda SK, Dash P, Chakraborty S, Batra SK, Senapati S. Characterization and use of HapT1-derived homologous tumors as a preclinical model to evaluate therapeutic efficacy of drugs against pancreatic tumor desmoplasia. (2016) Oncotarget. Jul 5;7(27):41825-41842
37. Barman PK, Mukherjee R, Prusty BK, Suklabaidya S, Senapati S, Ravindran B.Chitohexaose protects against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice. (2016) Cell Death & Disease. May 12;7
38. Jain S, Suklabaidya S, Das B, Raghav SK, Batra SK, Senapati S. TLR4 activation by lipopolysaccharide confers survival advantage to growth factor deprived prostate cancer cells. (2015) Prostate. Jul 1;75(10):1020-33.
39. Sarkar S, Jain S, Rai V, Sahoo DK, Raha S, Suklabaidya S, Senapati S, Rangnekar VM, Maiti IB, Dey N. Plant-derived SAC domain of PAR-4 (Prostate Apoptosis Response 4) exhibits growth inhibitory effects in prostate cancer cells. (2015) Front Plant Sci. Oct 7;6:822.
40. Maiti S, Patro S, Purohit S, Jain S, Senapati S, Dey N. Effective control of Salmonella infections by employing combinations of recombinant antimicrobial human β-defensins hBD-1 and hBD-2. (2014) Antimicrob Agents Chemother. Nov;58(11):6896-903.
41. Sahu PK*, Das B*, Sahoo L, Senapati S, Nayak GD. Genetic relationship and population structure of three Indian local chicken populations as revealed by mtDNA D-loop. (2015) Mitochondrial DNA. Jul 10:1-3.
42. Singh A, Jain S, Senapati S, Verma RS and Sahoo SK. Magnetic nanoparticles labeled mesenchymal stem cells: A pragmatic solution towards targeted cancer theranostics. (2015) Advanced Healthcare Materials. Sep 1
43. Pati, S. Jain, M. Behera, A.P. Acharya, S.K. Panda, S. Senapati. X-Gal staining of canine skin tissues: a technique with multiple possible applications. (2014) Journal of Natural Science, Biology and Medicine. July;5:245-249

Reviews and letter to editor

1. Mohapatra AP, Parida D, Mohapatra D, Nayak U, Swain RK, Senapati S. Zebrafish Larvae as a Model to Evaluate Potential Radiosensitizers or Protectors. J Vis Exp. 2022 Aug 25;(186). doi: 10.3791/64233.
2. Mohapatra D, Mohapatra A.P, Sahoo A.K, and Senapati, S. In-vitro and in-vivo models for the identification and validation of radioprotectors and radiosensitizers. Journal of Applied Biology & Biotechnology Vol. 11(2), pp. 94-101, Mar-Apr, 2023
3. Tripathy A, Dash J, Kancharla S, Kolli P, Mahajan D, Senapati S, Jena MK. Probiotics: A Promising Candidate for Management of Colorectal Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jun 25;13(13):3178.
4. Senapati S, Dash J, Sethi M, Chakraborty S (2020) Bioengineered probiotics to control SARS-CoV-2 infection. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e54802. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e54802
5. Das P, Minz A, Senapati S.  Possible autocrine function of galectin-3 in pancreatic stellate cells. Gastroenterology, August 2018
6. Suklabaidya S*, Dash P*, Das B, Suresh V, Sasmal PK, Senapati S. Experimental models of pancreatic cancer desmoplasia. Lab Invest.2018 Jan;98(1):27-40 
7. Suklabaidya S*, Dash P*, Senapati S. Pancreatic fibroblast exosomes regulate survival of cancer cells. Oncogene; 2017 Jun 22;36(25):3648-3649
8. Das B, Suklabaidya S, Jain S, Baisakh MR, Senapati S. MAGEA3 (melanoma antigen family A,3); Atlas Genet Cytogenet Oncol Haematol. April 2014.
9. Senapati S, Chakraborty S, Nath I, Panda SK, Patra RC and Batra SK. Non- Human Prostate Cancer Cell Lines. Oncology, Gastroenterology and Hepatology reports. 2012; 1(1):15-24

Book Chapter

1. Mishra S, Dash J , Mohapatra A, Sethi M, Senapati S. Probiotics based anticancer immunity in pancreatic cancer. Anticancer Immunity: Reviewing the Potential of Probiotics , pp 52-72, June 2023
2. Das B, Senapati S. Immunological and functional aspects of MAGEA3 cancer/testis antigen. Adv Protein Chem Struct Biol. 2021;125:121-147.
3. Senapati S, Singh RK and Batra SK. Tumor microenvironment: Blood vascular system in cancer metastasis. In: Systems Biology of Cancer, Editor: Sam Thiagalingam, Cambridge University Press London

  *Both the authors have equal contributions; Underlined= corresponding author

Extramural funding