Sumit Sen Santara , Ph.D.

Senior Scientist
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Research Focus

Innate immune cells evolve early and are present from simple multicellular organisms to complex vertibrates. Innate cells, such as NK cells and macrophages, are the early responder against different infections, injury or tumor formation. In addition to directly killing target cells, these cells can recruit adaptive arm of the immune system. However, mysteries surrounding the unique functionality of these cells are just beginning to be revealed. Taking the NK cells as a model, we will investigate novel cell death pathways, memory response, exhaustion and inflammation. Additionally, we will genetically modify NK cells to make them smarter so that we can better treat the cancer and infection through cell therapy and vaccine development.

Research Interest

  • Development of novel NK cell based therapy against cancer and viral infections.
  • Understanding the mechanism of NK cell exhaustion in tumor microenvironments and in disease states.
  • Explore the molecular mechanism of NK cell induced cell death pathways in infected cells and cancer. 

Credentials

  • Senior Scientist (2022-present) CSIR-Indian Institute of chemical biology (CSIR-IICB),Kolkata.
  • Scientist (2021-2022) ONK Therapeutics, San Diego, USA.
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow (2014-2021), Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
  • PhD (2009-2014) CSIR-Indian Institute of chemical biology (CSIR-IICB),Kolkata

Honours & Awards

  • INSA Young Scientist Award: Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, India (2018).
  • Jeffrey Modell Award: Jeffrey Modell Foundation, Boston, USA (2017).
  • Best poster award:  82nd Annual Meeting of Society of Biological Chemists, India (2013).
  • Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship: CSIR New Delhi, India (2009-2014).
  • Junior Research Fellowship: CSIR New Delhi, India (2008).
  • Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), 2008, AIR 3rd.

 

Patents & Publications

  1. Sen Santara S, Caroline Junqueira, Crespo A, Lieberman J (2021). The NK receptor Nkp46recognizes ecto-calreticulin in ER stressed cells. Under revision (https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2021.10.31.466654v1)
  2. Sen Santara S, Crespo A, Mulik S, Tilburgs T, Strominger J, Lieberman J (2021). Decidual NK cellskill Zika virus infected trophoblasts. In press Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (Impact factor: 11.3)
  3. Sumit Sen Santara*, Subrata Adak (2020) Structure-function relationship in leishmanial globin coupled soluble adenylate cyclase. Proceedings of the National Institute of Sciences of India DOI: 10.16943/ptinsa/2020/154983 (* corresponding author) (Impact factor: 0.4)
  4. Angela Crespo, Sachin Mulik, Sumit Sen Santara, Farokh Dotiwala James A. Ansara, TamaraTilburgs, Jack Strominger, Judy Lieberman (2020) Decidual NK cells kill intracellular bacteria but spare fetal trophoblast cells. Cell. 2020 Sep 3;182(5):1125-1139.e18. (Impact factor: 41.58)
  5. Junqueira C, Polidoro RB, Castro G, Absalon S, Liang Z, Sen Santara S, Crespo Â, Pereira DB,Gazzinelli RT, Dvorin JD, Lieberman J.(2020) γδ T cells suppress Plasmodium falciparum bloodstage infection by direct killing and phagocytosis. Nat Immunol. 2021 Mar;22(3):347-357 (Impact factor: 20.4)
  6. Caroline Junqueira, Camila R. R. Barbosa1, Pedro A. C. Costa1, Andréa Teixeira-Carvalho,Guilherme Castro, Sumit Sen Santara, Rafael P. Barbosa, Farokh Dotiwala, Dhelio B. Pereira, Lis R. Antonelli, Judy Lieberman and Ricardo T. Gazzinelli (2018). Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells recognize and kill Plasmodium vivax-infected reticulocytes. Nat Med. 2018 Jul 23. doi: 10.1038/s41591-018-0117-4. (Impact factor: 53.4)
  7. Dotiwala F*, Sen Santara S*, Binker-Cosen A*, Li B, Chandrasekaran S, Lieberman J (2017).Granzyme B disrupts central metabolism and protein synthesis in bacteria to promote an immune cell death program. Cell. 2017 Nov 16;171(5):1125-1137. (* equal contribution). (Impact factor: 41.58)
  8. Roy J, Sen Santara S, Adhikari A, Mukherjee A, Adak S (2015). Control of catalysis in globincoupled adenylate cyclase by a globin-B domain. Arch Biochem Biophys 579:85-90. (Impact factor: 3)
  9. Roy J, Sen Santara S, Bose M, Mukherjee S, Saha R, Adak S (2014). The ferrous-dioxy complex of Leishmania major globin coupled heme containing adenylate cyclase: The role of proximal histidine on its stability. Biochim Biophys Acta 1844(3):615-22. (Impact factor: 3)
  10. Saha R, Bose M, Sen Santara S, Roy J, Yadav RK, Adak S (2013). Effect of distal His mutation on the peroxynitrite reactivity of Leishmania major peroxidase. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Proteins and Proteomics 1834 (10), 2057-2063 (Impact factor: 3)
  11. Saha R, Bose M, Sen Santara S, Roy J, Adak S (2013). Identification of Proximal and Distal Axial Ligands in Leishmania major Pseudoperoxidase. Biochemistry 52(49):8878-87. (Impact factor: 3)
  12. Sen Santara S, Roy J, Mukherjee S, Bose M, Saha R, Adak S (2013). Globin-coupled heme containing oxygen sensor soluble adenylate cyclase in Leishmania prevents cell death during hypoxia. Proc NatlAcad Sci U S A 110(42):16790-5. (Impact factor: 11.3)
  13. Bose M, Saha R, Sen Santara S, Mukherjee S, Roy J, Adak S (2012). Protection against peroxynitrite by pseudoperoxidase from Leishmania major. Free Radic Biol Med 53(10):1819-28. (Impact factor:7.3)
  14. Mukherjee S, Sen Santara S, Das S, Bose M, Roy J, Adak S (2012). NAD(P)H cytochrome b5 oxidoreductase deficiency in Leishmania major results in impaired linoleate synthesis followed by increased oxidative stress and cell death. J Biol Chem 287(42):34992-5003 (Impact factor: 5.1)