Kiran Mahajan, PhD

Kiran Mahajan, PhD

Expertise


Specialty Areas


  • Prostate Cancer
  • Biomarkers
  • Epigenetics
  • Drug discovery
  • Therapeutics

Common Procedures


  • Processing of clinical specimens for mechanism-based development of biomarkers and therapeutics for clinically significant prostate cancers
Education


Degrees


MSc, Master of Science in Biotechnology,  MKU, Madurai, India, 1991

PhD, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 1998

Residency and Fellowship


Residency, Lindeberger Comprehensive Care Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2004

Ruth Kirschstein National Research Post-Doctoral Fellowship, National Institutes of Health, 2001-2004

Professional Memberships


American Association for Cancer Research

American Urological Association

Awards and Honors


  • 2021-2024 DOD PCRP Translational Science Award
  • 2020 Nanostring miRNA Grant Winner St. Louis region
  • 2019-2020 Phi Beta Psi Sorority Award
  • 2019-2020 Leadership in Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program (LEAP) Challenge Award
  • 2017 Co-Investigator, Movember Foundation-PCF Challenge Award, Basic Science Top Publication Award for 2017, Moffitt Cancer Center
  • 2015-2016 Department of Defense Exploratory Hypothesis Awards, Department of Defense, USA
  • 2014-2015 Department of Defense Exploratory Hypothesis Award, Department of Defense, USA
  • 2012-2013 Department of Defense Exploratory Hypothesis Award, Department of Defense, USA
  • 2001-2004 Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health, USA
  • 1998 Professor Giri Memorial Medal for the Best Doctoral Dissertation by the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • 1991-1996 University Graduate Scholarship by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India
  • November 1996 Best Poster at The 64th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Chemists (India), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
  • 1989-1991 Masters Scholarship, Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India
Research


Areas of Research Interest


Prostate cancer, sarcomas, epigenetics, role of developmentally regulated transcription factors and long non-coding RNAs in prostate cancer, DNA damage signaling response and repair pathways, therapeutics, and Biomarkers

Innovations


Title: Inhibitors of ACK1/TNK2 Tyrosine Kinase
Chinese Patent No. ZL 201480054401.3
Filing Date: August 6, 2014
Issue Date: Jan 8, 2020

Title: AKT Tyrosine 176 Phosphorylation as Cancer Biomarker US Patent No. 8,557,516
Filed Date: February 8, 2010
Issue Date: October 15, 2013
pTyr176-AKT antibody (Hybridomas) is patented by Moffitt and has been licensed for commercial Cancer diagnostic kit

Title: Antibodies specific for phosphorylated histones and uses thereof
Patent No. 9,594,084
Filed Date: July 2, 2014
Issue Date: March 14, 2017

European Patent No. EP 2 800 819 B
Issue Date: April 4, 2018
Published in the European Patent Bulletin No. 18/14
Phospho- Histone antibodies have also been licensed for commercialization

Title: Methods for treatment of disorders related to phosphorylation of histones Application # 14/860,405
Filing Date: September 23, 2014

Title: Inhibitors of ACK1/TNK2 Tyrosine Kinase
US Patent No 9,850,216
14833894.0 (European); 201480054401.3 (China); 201637004441 (India)
Filing Date: August 6, 2014
Issue Date: December 26, 2017
This technology has been licensed

Title: Inhibitors of ACK1/TNK2 Tyrosine Kinase
Application # 15/748,214; 62/200,084; 62/299,178
Filing Date: August 2, 2016

Intellectual Property Filed
WU Ref.: 2021 (Patent filing information ) T-019682
Invention Disclosure: “HOXB13 lysine 13 acetylation monoclonal antibodies to diagnose high-risk clinically significant prostate cancer”

Financial Disclosures


CONSULTING RELATIONSHIPS AND BOARD MEMBERSHIPS: Technogenesys: Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Publications


Ghildiyal R, Sawant M, Renganathan A, Kim E, Mahajan K, Feng F, and Mahajan N. Prostate Cancer Enforces Loss of NXTAR Long non-coding RNA Augmenting Androgen Receptor Expression and Enzalutamide Resistance. Cancer Research 2021 (Under revision).

Sawant M, Mahajan K, Renganathan A, Weimholt C, Kukshal V, Jez JM, Zhang B, Li T, Lawrence NJ, Luo Y, Lawrence HR, Feng FY, Mahajan NP* Chronologically modified Androgen Receptor in Recurrent Castration-resistant prostate cancer and its therapeutic targeting (Under review).

Kim EH, Cao D, Mahajan N, Andriole G and Mahajan K*. ACK1-AR-HOXB13 axis: Epigenetic Regulation of Lethal Prostate Cancer. Nucleic Acids Research Cancer, NAR Cancer, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2020.

Yao J, Chen Y, Nguyen DT, Thompson ZJ, Eroshkin AM, Nerlakanti N, Patel AK, Agarwal N, Teer JK, Dhillon J, Coppola D, Zhang J, Perera R, Kim Y, Mahajan K*. The Homeobox gene, HOXB13, Regulates a Mitotic Protein-Kinase Interaction Network in Metastatic Prostate Cancers. Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 4;9(1):9715. PMID: 31273254 5.

Nerlakanti N, Yao J, Nguyen DT, Patel AK, Eroshkin AE, Lawrence HR, Ayaz M, Kuenzi BM, Agarwal N, Chen Y, Gunawan S, Karim RM, Brendt N, Puskas J, Magliocco A, Coppola D, Dhillon J, Zhang J, Shymalagovindarajan S, Rix U, Kim Y, Perera R, Lawrence NJ, Schonbrunn E and Mahajan K*. Targeting the BRD4-HOXB13 Co-regulated Transcriptional Networks with Bromodomain-Kinase Inhibitors to Suppress Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Mol Cancer Ther. 2018 Dec;17(12):2796-2810. PMID: 30242092

Mahajan NP*, Coppola D, Kim J, Lawrence H, Lawrence N and Mahajan K*. Blockade of ACK1/TNK2 signaling to squelch survival of Prostate Cancer Stem-like Cells. Scientific Reports, 8(1):1954, 2018.

Mahajan N*, Pavani Malla, Amod Sarnaik, Jongphil Kim, Shari Pillon-Thomas, Jeffery Weber, and Mahajan K*. WEE1 epigenetically modulates 5-hmC levels by pY37-H2B dependent regulation of IDH2 gene expression. Oncotarget, 8(63):106352-106368, 2017.

Mahajan K, Malla P, Lawrence HR, Chen Z, Kumar-Sinha C, Malik R, Shukla S, Kim J, Coppola D, Lawrence NJ, Mahajan NP. ACK1/TNK2 Regulates Histone H4 Tyr88- phosphorylation and AR Gene Expression in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. PMID: 28609657 Cancer Cell, Jun 12;31(6):790-803. 2017.

Paranjape AN, R Soundararajan, S J Werden, R Joseph, J H Taube, H Liu, J Rodriguez- Canales, N Sphyris, I Wistuba, N Miura, J Dhillon, N Mahajan, Mahajan K, J T Chang, M Ittmann, S N Maity, C Logothetis, D G Tang and S A Mani Inhibition of FOXC2 restores epithelial phenotype and drug sensitivity in prostate cancer cells with stem-cell properties. Oncogene 35, 5963–5976, 2016

Mahajan K* hPso4/hPrp19: A Critical Component of DNA Repair and DNA Damage Checkpoint Complexes. Oncogene, 35, 2279-2286, 2016.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP. Cross talk of Tyrosine Kinases with the DNA Damage Signaling Pathways. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(22):10588-601, 2015.

Lawrence HR, Mahajan K, Liu Y, Zhang D, Tindal N, Huseyin M, Gevariya H, Kazi S, Ozcan S, Mahajan NP*, Lawrence NJ*. Development of novel ACK1 inhibitors using a fragment-based approach. J Med Chem. 58(6):2746-2763, 2015.

Mahajan K*, Lawrence H, Lawrence NJ and Mahajan NP*. ACK1 Tyrosine Kinase Interacts with KDM3A to Regulate the Mammary Tumor Oncogene HOXA1. J Biol Chem, 289:28179-91, 2014.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP*. ACK1/TNK2 tyrosine kinase: Molecular signaling and evolving role in cancer. Oncogene, 34(32):4162-7, 2014.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP*. AKT goes Cycling. Cancer Control, 21:239-4, 2014.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP*. Epigenetic Regulation of Core Histone Transcription: WEE1 as a Novel Epigenetic Modifier. Trends in Genetics, 29:394-402, 2013.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP*. Ack1 tyrosine kinase as an anticancer target in human cancer. Cancer Letters, 338:185-92, 2013.

Mahajan K, Fang B, Koomen J and Mahajan NP. H2B tyrosine 37-phosphorylation regulates expression of histone genes. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 19:930-937, 2012.

Mahajan K, Coppola D, Rawal B, Chen A, Lawrence H, Engelman RW, Lawrence NJ and Mahajan NP. Ack1/TNK2 inhibitor suppresses growth of Radioresistant Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. J Biol Chem, 287:22112-22, 2012.

Mahajan K* and Mahajan NP. PI3K-independent AKT activation in cancers: A treasure trove for novel therapeutics. Journal of Cellular Physiology, 227:3178-84, 2012.

Mahajan K, Coppola D, Lawrence H, Luo Y, Zhu W, Chen A, Lawrence NJ and Mahajan NP. Ack1 Tyrosine Kinase Activation Correlates with Pancreatic Cancer Progression. American Journal of Pathology, 180:1386-93, 2012.

Mahajan K and Mahajan NP Shepherding AKT and Androgen Receptor by Ack1 tyrosine kinase. J Cell Physiology, 224:327-33, 2010.

Mahajan K, Coppola D, Challa S, Fang B, Chen YA, Zhu W, Lopez AS, Koomen J, Engelman RW, Rivera C, Muraoka-Cook RS, Cheng JQ, Schönbrunn E, Sebti SM, Earp HS, Mahajan NP. Ack1 Mediated AKT/PKB Tyrosine 176 Phosphorylation Regulates Its Activation. PLoS One.5(3): e9646, 2010.

Mahajan K, Challa S, Coppola D, Lawrence H, Luo Y, Gevariya H, Zhu W, Chen YA, Lawrence NJ, Mahajan NP. Effect of Ack1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor on ligand-independent androgen receptor activity. Prostate, 70 (12);1274-85, 2010.

Anuradha S., Tripathi P., Mahajan, K., Muniyappa, K. Meiosis-specific yeast Hop1 protein promotes pairing of double-stranded DNA helices via G/C isochores. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 28;336(3):934-41, 2005.

Mahajan, K* and Mitchell, B.S. Role of human Pso4 in Mammalian DNA Repair and Association with Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 100:10746-10751, 2003.

Mahajan, K, McElhinny, S,A,N., Mitchell, B. S., and Ramsden, D.A. Association of DNA Polymerase µ (pol µ) with Ku and Ligase IV: Role for pol µ in End-Joining Double-Strand Break Repair. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 22:5194-5202, 2002.

Mahajan, K, Gangi-Peterson, L., Sorscher, D.H., Wang, J, Gathy, K.N., Mahajan, N.P., Reeves, W.H., and Mitchell, B.S. Association of Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase with Ku. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 96:13926-13931, 1999.

Muniyappa, K and Kironmai, K.M. (Mahajan, K). Telomere structure, replication and length maintenance. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 33:297-336, 1998.

Kironmai, K.M. (Mahajan, K), Muniyappa. K., Friedman, D.B., Hollingsworth, N.M., and Breck, B. DNA-binding activities of Hop1 protein, a synaptonemal complex component from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 18:1424-1435, 1998.

Kironmai, K.M. (Mahajan, K) and Muniyappa, K. Alteration of telomeric sequences and senescence caused by mutations in RAD50 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genes to Cells, 2:443-455, 1997.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Mahajan K and Mahajan NP*. ACK1: An Emerging Target for Cancer Therapeutics: AACR Education Book, 2014

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