Rajat Bhattacharya, Ph.D.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
The long-term research goal of our group is to investigate mechanisms of tumor growth and metastasis, understand mechanisms of resistance to therapies and develop novel strategies to overcome failure of systemic therapeutics in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies with a focus on colorectal cancer (CRC).
A major focus of the laboratory is to identify combination therapeutic strategies to improve efficacy of targeted therapies in RAS/RAF mutated CRC using high throughput 2D & 3D CRC models and PDXs. Our translational studies performed in collaboration with the Combinatorial Drug discovery Program at the Texas A&M School of Medicine have led to preclinical validation of novel drug combinations that can form the basis for potential clinical trials for patients with metastatic CRC.
A long-standing interest of our group has been in understanding the role of tumor vasculature on regulating the biology of colon cancer cells. We have previously shown that endothelial cells secrete angiocrine factors that modulate survival, stemness and chemotherapy resistance of CRC cells. Presently we are investigating the role of endothelial cells on altering the immunomodulatory properties of CRC cells.
We have recently demonstrated that an understudied protein Cytospin-A plays critical roles in proliferation and migration/invasion of CRC cells. Further studies on the role of this protein in CRC tumor growth and metastasis are presently underway.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2002 | Calcutta University, Kolkata, IND, PHD, Biochemistry |
| 1994 | Calcutta University, Kolkata, IND, MS, Biochemistry |
Postgraduate Training
| 2002-2006 | Research Fellowship, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX |
| 2000-2002 | Research Fellowship, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Rathore M, Zhang W, Wright M, Bhattacharya R, Fan F, Vaziri-Gohar A, Winter J, Wang Z, Markowitz SD, Willis J, Ellis LM, Wang R. Liver Endothelium Promotes HER3-Mediated Cell Survival in Colorectal Cancer with Wild-Type and Mutant KRAS. Mol Cancer Res 20(6):996-1008, 2022. PMID: 35276002.
- Fan F, Roszik J, Xia L, Ghosh S, Wang R, Ye X, Hawke D, Ellis LM, Bhattacharya R. Cytospin-A Regulates Colorectal Cancer Cell Division and Migration by Modulating Stability of Microtubules and Actin Filaments. Cancers (Basel) 14(8), 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35454887.
- Pichler M, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Nam SY, Dragomir MP, Bayraktar R, Anfossi S, Knutsen E, Ivan C, Fuentes-Mattei E, Lee SK, Ling H, Catela Ivkovic T, Huang G, Huang L, Okugawa Y, Katayama H, Taguchi A, Bayraktar E, Bhattacharya R, Amero P, He WR, Tran AM, Vychytilova-Faltejskova P, Klec C, Bonilla DL, Zhang X, Kapitanovic S, Loncar B, Gafà R, Wang Z, Cristini V, Hanash SM, Bar-Eli M, Lanza G, Slaby O, Goel A, Rigoutsos I, Lopez-Berestein G, Calin GA. Therapeutic potential of FLANC, a novel primate-specific long non-coding RNA in colorectal cancer. Gut 69(10):1818-1831, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31988194.
- Wu X, Park M, Sarbassova DA, Ying H, Lee MG, Bhattacharya R, Ellis L, Peterson CB, Hung MC, Lin HK, Bersimbaev RI, Song MS, Sarbassov DD. A chirality-dependent action of vitamin C in suppressing Kirsten rat sarcoma mutant tumor growth by the oxidative combination: Rationale for cancer therapeutics. Int J Cancer. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31472018.
- Wang R, Bhattacharya R, Ye X, Fan F, Boulbes DR, Ellis LM. Endothelial Cells Promote Colorectal Cancer Cell Survival by Activating the HER3-AKT Pathway in a Paracrine Fashion. Mol Cancer Res 17(1):20-29, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30131447.
- Boulbes DR, Costello T, Baggerly K, Fan F, Wang R, Bhattacharya R, Ye X, Ellis LM. A Survey on Data Reproducibility and the Effect of Publication Process on the Ethical Reporting of Laboratory Research. Clin Cancer Res 24(14):3447-3455, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29643062.
- Fan F, Wang R, Boulbes DR, Zhang H, Watowich SS, Xia L, Ye X, Bhattacharya R, Ellis LM. Macrophage conditioned medium promotes colorectal cancer stem cell phenotype via the hedgehog signaling pathway. PLoS One 13(1):e0190070, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29293549.
- Wang R, Bhattacharya R, Ye X, Fan F, Boulbes DR, Xia L, Ellis LM. Endothelial Cells Activate the Cancer Stem Cell-Associated NanogP8 Pathway in Colorectal Cancer Cells in a Paracrine Fashion. Mol Oncol 11(8):1023-1034, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28453235.
- Ye X, Wang R, Bhattacharya R, Boulbes DR, Fan F, Xia L, Adoni H, Ajami NJ, Wong MC, Smith DP, Petrosino JF, Venable S, Qiao W, Baladandayuthapani V, Maru D, Ellis LM. Fusobacterium Nucleatum Subspecies Animalis Influences Proinflammatory Cytokine Expression and Monocyte Activation in Human Colorectal Tumors. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 10(7):398-409, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28483840.
- Bhattacharya R, Ye XC, Wang R, Ling X, McManus M, Fan F, Boulbes D, Ellis LM. Intracrine VEGF Signaling Mediates the Activity of Prosurvival Pathways in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells. Cancer Res 76(10):3014-24, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26988990.
- Wang R, Ye X, Bhattacharya R, Boulbes DR, Fan F, Xia L, Ellis LM. A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase Domain 17 Regulates Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells and Chemosensitivity Via Notch1 Signaling. Stem Cells Transl Med 5(3):331-8, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26744411.
- Ye X, Fan F, Bhattacharya R, Bellister S, Boulbes DR, Wang R, Xia L, Ivan C, Zheng X, Calin GA, Wang J, Lu X, Ellis LM. VEGFR-1 Pseudogene Expression and Regulatory Function in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells. Mol Cancer Res 13(9):1274-82, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26041938.
- Pecot CV, Wu SY, Bellister S, Filant J, Rupaimoole R, Hisamatsu T, Bhattacharya R, Maharaj A, Azam S, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Nagaraja AS, Morelli MP, Gharpure KM, Waugh TA, Gonzalez-Villasana V, Zand B, Dalton HJ, Kopetz S, Lopez-Berestein G, Ellis LM, Sood AK. Therapeutic silencing of KRAS using systemically delivered siRNAs. Mol Cancer Ther 13(12):2876-85, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25281617.
- Zhou Y, Bollu LR, Tozzi F, Ye X, Bhattacharya R, Gao G, Dupre E, Xia L, Lu J, Fan F, Bellister S, Ellis LM, Weihua Z. ATP citrate lyase mediates resistance of colorectal cancer cells to SN38. Mol Cancer Ther 12(12):2782-91, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24132143.
- Lu J, Ye X, Fan F, Xia L, Bhattacharya R, Bellister S, Tozzi F, Sceusi E, Zhou Y, Tachibana I, Maru DM, Hawke DH, Rak J, Mani SA, Zweidler-McKay P, Ellis LM. Endothelial cells promote the colorectal cancer stem cell phenotype through a soluble form of Jagged-1. Cancer Cell 23(2):171-85, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23375636.
Editorials
- Bhattacharya R, Ellis LM. It Is Time to Re-evaluate the Peer Review Process for Preclinical Research. Bioessays 40(1), 2018. PMID: 29226979.