Tight Junctions in Inflammation and Cancer (炎症與癌症中的緊密連接)

Dr. Ajaz A. Bhat currently works as a staff scientist at Sidra Medicine, Qatar. He completed his Ph.D. in vaccine immunology from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi, one of the premier medical institutes in India. After his Ph.D., he moved to Vanderbilt University Medical School (VUMS), Nashville, TN, USA, for a postdoctoral fellowship. During his eleven years of post-PhD training, he gained broad experience of the importance of tight junction proteins (Claudins) in intestinal homeostasis and colorectal cancer pathogenesis. In his second postdoctoral fellowship, he studied e role of bile acid induced APE1/Ref1 in the pathogenesis of esophageal cancer. Currently, his research focus is cancer metabolism, cancer imaging, cancer immunotherapy, drug resistance, Cancer Genetics, Obesity, and Diabetes.

He has published his findings in reputed journals like Nature Communications, GUT, Oncogene, Cancer Research, and Molecular Cancer. He has received awards from the Immunology society and the American Association of Cancer research. Dr. Bhat was recently awarded as an outstanding researcher from Sidra Medicine. He is an active member of many Immunology and Cancer societies and serves in the editorial board and review committee of many peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Punita Dhawan is currently working as a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Her research focuses on understanding the novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for colorectal cancer progression and metastasis. The field of epithelial barrier physiology with specific consideration of claudin proteins was born in 1998, and in 2005 she published a ground-breaking finding that contrary to the conventional wisdom, an upregulated claudin-1 expression promotes sporadic colon cancer progression in JCI (J Clin Invest. 2005 Jul;115(7):1765-76). After that, her ongoing investigations to understand the molecular details of the role of this protein in the regulation of intestinal homeostasis and pathologies have resulted in publications in Gastroenterology, GUT, Cancer Research, Mucosal Biology, Oncogene, etc.. In 2015, she demonstrated the role of Claudin-7 as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancer, and this paper has received great attention. Her studies also focus on determining the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in colon cancer metastasis and chemoresistance. In this course, her group has generated novel reagents, genetically modified cell lines, and multiple mouse models with specific modification of claudin-1 and claudin-7 proteins alone or in association with other significant co-founders but also established our leadership in this field of investigation. As PI or co-Investigator on federally funded grants, she laid the groundwork for the proposed research to perform these studies and have the expertise, leadership, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed work. In addition, a member of the iCaRe2 Biobank/Biorepository has access to a "state of the art" patient cohort of CRC samples. As principal investigator or co-Investigator on federal, regional, and local grant funding, including NIH-R21, R01 and VA-merit awards aimed at intestinal pathologies and cancer, she effectively demonstrates leadership as the PI of this unique PI multi-disciplinary grant proposal.

Dr. Mohammad Haris is an associate professor at the Center for Advanced Metabolic Imaging in Precision Medicine, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. He leads the molecular and metabolic imaging research program to develop novel MR imaging methods to image and diagnose various human diseases at their incipient stage. His additional role provides interdisciplinary training projects and an educational environment on biomedical imaging to undergraduate, masters, and graduate students, emphasizing translational and clinical applications. He serves as a section sditor to the Journal of Translational Medicine and managing editor to Translational Medicine Communications, and reviewer for many international scientific journals. He also holds the adjunct Professor position at Qatar University. After completing Ph.D. in biomedical imaging from a reputed institution in India, Dr. Haris joined the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where his focus was developing novel molecular and metabolic imaging techniques using NMR and MRI. Dr. Haris has published his research in leading journals, including Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Cancer Research, Molecular Cancer and Cell.

Dr. Muzafar A. Macha works as an Assistant Professor & Ramalingaswami Fellow at the Watson-Crick Centre for Molecular Medicine, Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST), India. He did his Master in Biochemistry from Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. In 2005, he joined his doctoral program on Head and Neck Cancers (HNCs) in the Department of Biochemistry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India, which is a premier institute of biomedical research in India. He joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), University of Nebraska Medical Centre (UNMC), USA, as a postdoctoral fellow (2011), where he developed an independent HNC Research group and worked on the identification of deregulated signaling pathways and novel therapeutic targets. After his promotion to Assistant Professor in the BMB, UNMC, he developed several in vitro (cell lines), Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMMs) of HNSCC and unique therapeutic modalities. He published his work in several peer-reviewed journals, including Journals of the National Cancer Institute, Oncogene, Carcinogenesis, Cancer Treatment Reviews, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, BBA-Molecular Basis of Disease, Oncotarget, and EBioMedicine. He also received many awards, including the Young Investigator award, Educational scholarship award, Scholar-In-Training award, Best performance stipend award (2012, 2013), Gita Mittal award/Gold medal for the best basic cancer research in Ph.D. (AIIMS, New Delhi) and Gold medal for his master's degree (Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi). More recently, he received two very prestigious Ramalingaswami & Ramanujan fellowships from Govt. of India.

Dr. Ajaz A. Bhat 目前在卡塔爾的 Sidra Medicine 擔任研究科學家。他在印度新德里的全印度醫學科學院（AIIMS）完成了疫苗免疫學的博士學位，該院是印度的頂尖醫學機構之一。獲得博士學位後，他前往美國田納西州納什維爾的范德堡大學醫學院（VUMS）進行博士後研究。在他十一年的博士後訓練期間，他獲得了有關緊密連接蛋白（Claudins）在腸道穩態和結直腸癌發病機制中重要性的廣泛經驗。在他的第二個博士後研究中，他研究了膽酸誘導的 APE1/Ref1 在食道癌發病機制中的作用。目前，他的研究重點是癌症代謝、癌症影像學、癌症免疫療法、藥物抗性、癌症遺傳學、肥胖和糖尿病。

他已在《Nature Communications》、《GUT》、《Oncogene》、《Cancer Research》和《Molecular Cancer》等知名期刊上發表了研究成果。他曾獲得免疫學學會和美國癌症研究協會的獎項。最近，Dr. Bhat 被 Sidra Medicine 評選為傑出研究人員。他是多個免疫學和癌症學會的活躍成員，並在多本同行評審期刊的編輯委員會和審查委員會中任職。

Dr. Punita Dhawan 目前在美國內布拉斯加州奧馬哈的內布拉斯加醫學中心生物化學與分子生物學系擔任教授。她的研究專注於理解結直腸癌進展和轉移的新型生物標記和治療靶點。上皮屏障生理學的研究領域於1998年誕生，2005年她發表了一項突破性發現，與傳統觀念相反，Claudin-1 的上調表達促進了散發性結腸癌的進展（JCI，J Clin Invest. 2005年7月；115(7)：1765-76）。此後，她持續研究該蛋白在腸道穩態和病理調控中的分子細節，並在《Gastroenterology》、《GUT》、《Cancer Research》、《Mucosal Biology》、《Oncogene》等期刊上發表了相關成果。2015年，她證明了 Claudin-7 在結直腸癌中的腫瘤抑制作用，該論文引起了廣泛關注。她的研究還專注於確定癌症幹細胞（CSCs）在結腸癌轉移和化學抗性中的作用。在此過程中，她的團隊生成了新型試劑、基因改造細胞系和多個小鼠模型，對 Claudin-1 和 Claudin-7 蛋白進行了特定的改造，並在這一研究領域建立了領導地位。作為聯邦資助計畫的首席研究員或共同研究員，她為提議的研究奠定了基礎，具備成功執行提議工作的專業知識、領導能力和動力。此外，作為 iCaRe2 生物庫/生物儲存庫的成員，她可以接觸到一個“最先進”的結直腸癌樣本患者群體。作為聯邦、區域和地方資助的首席研究員或共同研究員，包括 NIH-R21、R01 和 VA-merit 獎項，旨在研究腸道病理和癌症，她有效地展示了作為這一獨特多學科資助提案的首席研究員的領導能力。

Dr. Mohammad Haris 是美國賓夕法尼亞大學佩雷爾曼醫學院放射學系精準醫學先進代謝影像中心的副教授。他領導分子和代謝影像研究計畫，開發新型 MR 影像方法，以在各種人類疾病的早期階段進行影像檢查和診斷。他的另一項角色是為本科生、碩士生和研究生提供跨學科的培訓項目和生物醫學影像的教育環境。