Sushma Yadav, Ph.D.

Sushma Yadav, Ph.D., is a trained biochemist and molecular biologist with more than 15 years of research experience in protein and nucleic acid biochemistry, and direct experience in the areas of protein purification and characterization, enzymology, biomarker discovery, and development of therapeutic agents. She has authored more than 40 publications in peer reviewed journals including PLOS ONE, JBC, Cancer Research, Diabetes, Biochemistry, Biochemical Pharmacology, and several reviews and book chapters. As a PI or co-investigator on several foundation, university- and NIH funded grants; She successfully administered the projects (maintaining budget, regulatory research protocols, regulatory requirements and compliances for drugs and biologics), and produced several peer-reviewed publications from each grants.

Dr. Yadav was selected as STAR (Steps Toward Academic Research) fellow by Texas Center for Health Disparities, where she had the first opportunity to interact directly with the community aim to reduce/eliminate health disparity through research, education and community relations. Utilizing her extensive previous experience in basic cancer research and health disparities, she built a platform in collaboration with senior investigators at City of Hope, and developed the project exploring the role of SMC1 in triple negative breast cancer progression and metastasis. As yet these studies have yielded very exciting and promising results which may be a prognostic biomarker for early detection and tailored therapy for triple negative breast cancer.

The major focus of our research is to explore the role of structural maintenance of chromosome protein-1 (SMC1) in the pathogenesis of cancer and diabetes. We have shown that the protein originally known for its role in chromosomal cohesion and DNA repair is differentially overexpressed in response to inflammation and oxidative stress. Forced overexpression of SMC1 enhanced cell proliferation and metastasis in triple negative breast cancer. Overexpression of SMC1 is also involved in thickening of the bowman’s capsule in diabetic nephropathy. We use state-of-the art approaches including the in vitro cell culture, animal and clinical samples to examine the expression and localization SMC1 which leads to enhanced cell growth in cancer and diabetes. We are developing antibody-based therapeutics targeting SMC1 as a potential drug for treatment for cancer.