42932-Roy, Sashwati
Faculty

Sashwati Roy, PhD, MSC, MPHIL, BSC

Professor of Surgery

Email roysa@iu.edu
Address
975 W Walnut St.
ICRME, 444 B

Indianapolis, IN 46202

Bio

Sashwati Roy, PhD, is a Professor of Surgery and Director of Clinical Research at IU Health Comprehensive Wound CenterDr. Roy is an expert in biofilm infection, inflammation and macrophage biology in chronic wounds, more specifically diabetic ulcers. She also has interest and leads multiple funded programs on prosthesis and residual limb health. She completed her PhD at the University of Kuopio, Finland, and post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley & Lawrence Berkeley national laboratory, CA. Her research interests include wound inflammation, mechanisms of resolution of diabetic wound inflammation/infection, tissue repair, and cellular plasticity.

Dr. Roy has over 225 peer reviewed publications. Her work has been cited more than 29,000 times. Dr. Roy’s research program is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIDDK & NINR) and Department of Defense (DoD). Dr. Roy served as a permanent member of the NIH surgery Anesthesia Trauma (SAT) study section. In addition, she routinely serves as a reviewer for multiple other NIH, VA & DoD study sections, international grant review panels as well as for prestigious journals. She is well known nationally and internationally in the wound healing community and have served the national Wound Healing Society (WHS) in various capacities during the past decade including President (2018-2019). 

Key Publications

Titles & Appointments

  • Professor of Surgery
  • Adjunct Professor of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology
  • Director, Clinical Research, IU Health Comprehensive Wound Care Center
  • Faculty, Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, IU School of Medicine
  • Faculty, Indiana BioMedical Gateway Program, IU School of Medicine
  • Education
    2000 FEL Post Doctoral Research Training, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
    2000 FEL Post Doctoral Research Training, University of California, Berkley
    1994 PhD University of Eastern Finland
    1989 MPHIL Meerut University
    1986 MSC Meerut University
    1984 BSC Meerut University
  • Research

    Wound inflammation. We first reported that diabetic wounds have unresolved inflammation because of impaired efferocytosis (dead cell engulfment) activity of wound macrophages. Later we published our pioneering work where, for the first time, we isolated functional macrophages from chronic human wounds. Emerging studies indicate that miRNA play a key role in regulating several hubs that orchestrate the inflammatory process. We demonstrated the significance of miR-21 in resolution of wound inflammation. 

    1. Das A, Ganesh K, Khanna S, Sen CK, Roy S. Engulfment of apoptotic cells by macrophages: a role of microRNA-21 in the resolution of wound inflammation. J Immunol. 2014;192(3):1120-9. PMCID: PMC4358325
    2. Ganesh K, Das A, Dickerson R, Khanna S, Parinandi NL, Gordillo GM, Sen CK, Roy S. Prostaglandin E2 Induces Oncostatin M Expression in Human Chronic Wound Macrophages through Axl Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Pathway. J Immunol. 2012;189(5):2563-73. PMCID: PMC3438225.
    3. Roy, S. miRNA in Macrophage Development and Function. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2016 Nov 20;25(15):795-8042016. PMCID: PMC5107671

     

    Biofilm infection in chronic wounds. It is estimated that over two-third of all chronic wounds harbor biofilm infection. To understand long-term effect of biofilm infection we developed first pre-clinical model of chronic biofilm infection. Using this model, we recently showed that biofilm infection results in induction of miR-9 and NFkB resulting in increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. We also demonstrated a novel electroceutical-based intervention was effective in combatting wound biofilm infection and reduced wound inflammation.

    1. Roy S, Santra S, Das A, Dixith S, Sinha M, Ghatak S, Ghosh N, Banerjee P, Khanna S, Mathew-Steiner S, Ghatak PD, Blackstone BN, Powell HM, Bergdall VK, Wozniak DJ and Sen CK. Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Infection Compromises Wound Healing by Causing Deficiencies in Granulation Tissue Collagen. Ann Surg. 2020 Jun;271(6):1174-1185. PMCID: PMC7065840
    2. Barki KG, Das A, Dixit S, Ghatak PD, Mathew-Steiner S, Schwab E, Khanna S, Wozniak D, Roy S, and Sen CK. Electric Field Based Dressing Disrupts Mixed-Species Bacterial Biofilm Infection and Restores Functional Wound Healing. Ann Surg. 2019 Apr;269(4):756-766. PMCIDPMC6568008.

     

    Tissue repair and cellular plasticity. We reported that the wound site macrophage plasticity is a major determinant of wound inflammation outcomes. A large-scale conversion of wound macrophages to fibroblast like cells at the wound-site was noted.

    Sinha M, Sen CK, Singh K, Das A, Ghatak S, Rhea B, Blackstone B, Powell HM, Khanna S, Roy S. Direct conversion of injury-site myeloid cells to fibroblast-like cells of granulation tissue. Nature Communications. 2018: Mar 5;9(1):936. PMCID: PMC5838200.

     

    Clinical research to enhance quality of life of service men and women and veterans, with severe wounds and amputations.  

    War-related wound infections remain a considerable burden for our military health care system. Infection-related mortality in trauma injuries occurs at a higher rate among military service members as compared with civilian patients. Biofilm infection by multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria/fungi is a major threat for these wounds. We developed electroceutical-based wound dressing that is not subject to the metabolic pathways of drug resistance; it has the potential to circumvent drug resistance. A multi-site clinical trial is underway to determine efficacy of electroceutical dressings against wound biofilm infection.

    Active Grants

    NIH/NIDDK: U01DK119099 (co-PI for Diabetic Foot Consortium)

    NIH/NIDDK: R01 DK128845 (co-PI)

    NIH/NIDDK: R01 DK125835 (co-I)

    NIH/NIDDK: 1R01DK114718 (PI)

    NIH/NIDDK: R61DK131909 (PI)

    NIH/NIAID: R01 AI138981 (subaward co-PI)

    DoD/USAMRAA: 2019-328-002 (PI)

    DoD/USAMRAA: W81XWH2110459 (PI)

    DoD/USAMRAA: W81XWH-22-1-0274 (PI)

    NSF: DMR-2117629 (co-PI)

  • Professional Organizations
    Wound Healing Society

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