Three early-stage investigators from Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at the Indiana University School of Medicine will be recognized by the Wound Healing Society, The Wound Healing Foundation and the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care for their research in April. Award recipients Amitava Das, MPharm, PhD, Mohamed S. El Masry, MD, PhD, and Kanhaiya Singh, PhD, are each assistant professors of surgery and affiliated with the Department of Surgery at the school.
Dr. Das will receive the 2022 WHF/WHS Junior Faculty Travel Award for his abstract entitled, “Wound macrophage-derived Oncostatin M induces antimicrobial S100A9 in cutaneous wound epithelium.” Dr. Singh will receive the WHF/WHS Translational and Regenerative Science Award for his abstract entitled “Endothelial PLCG2: The missing link that makes VEGF Therapy Robust.” Dr. El Masry will receive the 2022 SAWC Young Investigator Award for his abstract, “Targeting Persister Hyperbiofilm Forming Bacterial Infection: The GelATA Wound Care Dressing.”
“I congratulate Dr. Das, Dr. Singh, and Dr. El Masry and their team for their national recognition. Developing competitive early stage investigators is a key goal of the ICRME and I thank all mentors for their role in serving that mission,” said Chandan K. Sen, PhD, the J. Stanley Battersby Chair and Distinguished University Professor of Surgery and director of the ICRME. “We are pleased to see their notable recognition at this stage of their careers and anticipate they will continue to achieve new milestones in their respective areas of regenerative medicine.”
Dr. Das’ research interests are wound healing, tissue repair and regeneration in diabetes, with a focus on nutraceuticals. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry, respectively, from the PES College of Pharmacy in Bangladore, India, and then completed his PhD degree in human nutrition from The Ohio State University. Before arriving at IU, he served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He has published more than 20 research papers and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of American College of Nutrition.
“I am very excited to be recognized with a junior faculty award for my research,” Dr. Das said. “This award was given for the scientific work that recognizes the significance of a wound macrophage derived cytokine, Oncostatin M, in bolstering antimicrobial peptides in the cutaneous wound epithelium, which would eventually help in fighting infections. This award will enable me to present my research findings at the WHS conference. I take this opportunity to thank all the co-authors, collaborators and mentors, especially Prof. Sashwati Roy.”
Dr. Singh’s research experience includes studying epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression under diabetic conditions and high throughput mass-spectrometric proteomic analysis, including in vitro and in vivo SILAC. His recent research includes investigating implications of single-cell transcriptomics and single-cell ATAC sequencing approaches to study compromised molecular pathways in diabetic wound healing. Dr. Singh completed his PhD in genetic analysis of impairment of diabetic wound healing at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, and then went on to The Ohio State University for post-doctoral research. He has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Nanotechnology and Nature Communications.
“I am extremely honored to be receiving this prestigious WHF/WHS Translational and Regenerative Science Award,” Singh said. “This award recognizes scientific work that fosters the development of cell-based and other therapies in wound healing and regenerative medicine toward clinical applicability. This award will help me facilitate the presentation and scientific discussion of our work. I would like to thank all the co-authors and mentors, especially Dr. Chandan Sen, to make this work feasible.”
The ICRME researcher team investigated the significance of endothelial PLCG2 in augmentation of VEGF therapy in ischemic tissue at single cell level and concluded non-viral topical tissue nanotransfection (TNT) delivery of endothelial PLCG2 promoted the rescue of hind-limb ischemia in diabetic mice.
Dr. El Masry is a plastic surgeon-scientist with expertise in developing preclinical wound healing models. He has studied maxillofacial burn trauma and scar management via regenerative pathways and the management of chronic and infected burn wounds using regenerative interventional modalities. Dr. El Masry completed his medical degree and general surgery training, residency, and plastic surgery training from Zagazig University School of Medicine in Zagazig, Egypt, and his PhD in novel strategies in regenerative wound healing via a conjoint program between Zagazig University and The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He has published in several first-tier peer-reviewed journals such as ACS NANO, Annals of Surgery, FASEB and Molecular Therapy.
“It’s a great honor and a privilege to receive this recognition from the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and I look forward to presenting my work at SAWC /WHS meeting on a novel wound care dressing that has the potential to combat the resistant hyper-biofilm forming bacteria,” said Dr. El Masry. “I can’t thank enough Dr. Sen, for his continuous and limitless support, and I’d like to thank the rest of our investigative team and the co-authors for their support and contributions to our research.”
The Young Investigator Award competition recognizes outstanding early career or young investigators’ research accomplishments through high-ranking abstracts submitted at the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) spring meeting.
The Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering is a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to developing novel technologies that regenerate cells and tissues affected by age, disease, or congenital effects, with the goal of being a leader in wound care and healing for patients in Indiana and around the world.
