Ram Ganapathi, Ph.D.

CBES Area of Interest:

Acute myeloid leukemia, Serous ovarian cancer, topoisomerases, gene profiling, resistance to cancer chemotherapy, clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenomics.

CBES Area of Expertise:

Translational research in cancer is focused on acute myeloid leukemia and serous ovarian cancer, since drug resistance and tumor recurrence are major clinical problems. In acute myeloid leukemia the goal is to determine the functional role for topoisomerase II isoforms α and β in cell growth, differentiation and as targets for drugs used in chemotherapy. Research in serous ovarian cancer include gene profiling to identify genetic changes that predict tumor recurrence and resistance to chemotherapy. Further, by altering expression levels of target genes in cell culture models of ovarian cancer and normal epithelial cells involved in ovarian tumorigenesis, we plan to develop novel paradigms on mechanisms of drug resistance and pathobiology of the disease.