Dr. Ashish Tyagi received his Ph.D. in Biotechnology at the National Dairy Research Institute, India, in 2014 studying expression of recombinant proteins in bacterial, yeast and mammalian hosts. He also worked extensively on identification and development of indigenous probiotic strains and metabolites (Conjugated linoleic Acid) establishing their anti-pathogenic, immune-modulatory, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties in invitro and invivo models. At present, he works at the University of Louisville studying targeted and personalized therapies for treatment of gastrointestinal and genitourinary carcinomas. Small molecule inhibitors (SMIs), combination therapies and mechanistic studies of underlying signaling pathways are of particular interest to him. Of note, in the field, he uncovered role of androgen receptor (AR) in bladder cancer (BCa). He published an internationally acclaimed work (Young investigator travel award at American Association for Cancer Research-Chinese Society for Clinical Oncology conference 2018, Xiamen, China) on inhibition of BCa with combination of AR inhibitor, enzalutamide, and cisplatin at lower dosages to manage renal toxicity in BCa patients. He also worked on identifying mechanism of cadmium induced (Cigarrete Smoking) prostate carcinogenesis. With 174,650 estimated cases of prostate cancer in USA in 2019 and 27.8%, adult smokers in Kentucky alone, the exceptional findings of this study (Awarded Scholar-in-Training Award at AACR2018 as co-author) can steer further research to ultimately bring a policy change and have real patient impact in future.
Dr. Ashish Tyagi’s research interests includes identification/characterization/profiling of Small molecule inhibitors (SMIs), combination therapies and mechanistic studies of underlying signaling pathways. He believes there is an urgent need to develop and optimize high throughput platforms for identifying SMIs, refining potential combinations prior to clinical trials and subsequent delivery of synergistic, personalized, combinations to the tumor microenvironment.