Shanta Dhar

Assistant Professor

Postdoc 2007-2010, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Postdoc 2006-2007, Johns Hopkins University

PhD, Indian Institute of Science

679  706-542-1012

Email: 

shanta@uga.edu

Fax: 

706-542-9454

Website: 

http://shanta.chem.uga.edu/

links
https://www.facebook.com/shanta.dhar.9

current Research

Our research interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology with particular emphasis on nanocarrier mediated delivery of metal-based drugs for their potential applications in various diseases and in the development of nano-vaccines. We are focused on interdisciplinary approaches for drug development. Our lab strategically place research at the interface of biological chemistry and nanotechnology. The progress for targeted delivery in specific cell organelles is limited. Our research is directed to develop organelle targeting polymeric nanoparticle-metal complex constructs, and to study nanoparticle assisted targeted delivery and the anticancer properties. Our lab develops technologies that use a combination of conventional methods of cancer treatment and immunotherapy in a single nanoparticle platform to provide powerful low-cost tool to treat cancer in humans.

Selected Publications

Wen, R. ; Umeano, A. C. ; Francis, L. ; Sharma, N. ; Tundup, S. ; Dhar, S.Mitochondrion: a Promising Target for Nanoparticle-based Vaccine. Vaccines2016.

Pathak, R. ; Dhar, S. Combined Chemo-Anti-Inflammatory Prodrugs and Nanoparticles. Synlett 2016, Accepted.

Chaudhary, A. ; Bhat, T. ; Kumar, S. ; Kumar, A. ; Kumar, R. ; Underwood, W. ; Koochekpour, S. ; Shourideh, M. ; Yadav, N. ; Dhar, S. ; Chandra, D.Mitochondria dysfunction-mediated apoptosis resistance associates with defective heat shock protein response in African American prostate cancer.Br. J. Cancer 2016, In Press, doi: 10.1038/bjc.2016.88.

Wen, R. ; Banik, B. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Kumar, A. ; Kolishetti, N. ; Dhar, S.Nanotechnology Inspired Tools for Mitochondrial Dysfunction Related Diseases. Adv. Drug. Deliv. Rev. 2016, 99, 52–69.

Pathak, R. K. ; Dhar, S. Unique Use of Alkylation for Chemo-Redox Activity by a Pt(IV) Prodrug. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 3029-3036.

Kalathil, A. A. ; Kumar, A. ; Banik, B. ; Ruiter, T. A. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Dhar, S.New Formulation of Old Aspirin for Better Delivery. Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 140-143.

Feldhaeusser, B. ; Platt, S. R. ; Marrache, S. ; Kolishetti, N. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Montgomery, D. J. ; Reno, L. R. ; Howerth, E. ; Dhar, S. Evaluation of Nanoparticle Delivered Cisplatin in Beagles. Nanoscale 2015, 7, 13822-13830.

Pathak, R. K. ; Dhar, S. A Nanoparticle Cocktail: Temporal Release of Predefined Drug Combinations. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 8324–8327.

Hung, S. W. ; Marrache, S. ; Cummins, S. ; Bhutia, Y. D. ; Mody, H. ; Hooks, S. B. ; Dhar, S. ; Govindarajan, R. Defective hCNT1 Transport Contributes to Gemcitabine Chemoresistance in Ovarian Cancer Subtypes: Overcoming Transport Defects Using a Nanoparticle Approach. Cancer Lett. 2015, 359, 233-240.

Marrache, S. ; Tundup, S. ; Harn, D. A. ; Dhar, S. Ex Vivo Generation of Functional Immune Cells by Mitochondria-targeted Photosensitization of Cancer Cells. In Methods in Molecular Biology; Methods in Molecular Biology; 2015; Vol. II, Manipulating Mitochondrial Function, pp. 113-122.

Marrache, S. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Dhar, S. Formulation and Optimization of Mitochondria-targeted Polymeric Nanoparticles. In Methods in Molecular Biology; Methods in Molecular Biology; 2015; Vol. II, Manipulating Mitochondrial Function, pp. 103-112.

Marrache, S. ; Dhar, S. The Energy Blocker Inside the Power House: Mitochondria Targeted Delivery of 3-bromopyruvate. Chem. Sci. 2015, 6, 1832-1845.

Pathak, R. K. ; Kolishetti, N. ; Dhar, S. Targeted Nanoparticles in Mitochondrial Medicine. WIREs Nanomed. Nanobiotechnol. 2015, 7, 315-329.

Marrache, S. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Dhar, S. Detouring of Cisplatin to Access Mitochondrial Genome for Overcoming Resistance. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA2014, 10444-10449.

Pathak, R. K. ; McNitt, C. D. ; Popik, V. V. ; Dhar, S. Copper-free click-chemistry platform to functionalize cisplatin prodrugs. Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 6861-6865.

Pathak, R. K. ; Marrache, S. ; Harn, D. A. ; Dhar, S. Mito-DCA: A mitochondria targeted molecular scaffold for efficacious delivery of metabolic modulator dichloroacetate. ACS Chem. Biol. 2014, 9, 1178-1187.

Pathak, R. K. ; Marrache, S. ; Choi, J. H. ; Berding, T. B. ; Dhar, S. The prodrug Platin-A: Simultaneous release of cisplatin and aspirin. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 1963-1967.

Marrache, S. ; Tundup, S. ; Harn, D. A. ; Dhar, S. Ex vivo programming of dendritic cell by mitochondria-targeted nanoparticles to produce interferon-gamma for cancer immunotherapy. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 7392-7402.

Hung, S. W. ; Mody, H. ; Marrache, S. ; Bhutia, Y. D. ; Davis, F. ; Cho, J. H. ; Zastre, J. ; Dhar, S. ; Chu, C. K. ; Govindarajan, R. Pharmacological reversal of histone methylation presensitizes pancreatic cancer cells to nucleoside drugs: In vitro optimization and novel nanoparticle delivery studies. PLOS ONE 2013, 8(8), e71196.

Marrache, S. ; Pathak, R. K. ; Darley, K. L. ; Choi, J. H. ; Zaver, D. ; Kolishetti, N. ; Dhar, S. Nanocarriers for tracking and treating diseases. Curr. Med. Chem.2013, 20, 3500-3514.

Marrache, S. ; Dhar, S. Biodegradable synthetic high-density lipoprotein nanoparticles for atherosclerosis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2013, 110, 9445-9450.

Marrache, S. ; Choi, J. H. ; Tundup, S. ; Zaver, D. ; Harn, D. A. ; Dhar, S.Immune stimulating photoactive hybrid nanoparticles for metastatic breast cancer. Integr. Biol. 2013, 5, 215-223.

Marrache, S. ; Dhar, S. Engineering of blended nanoparticle platform for delivery of mitochondria-acting therapeutics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.2012, 109.

Dhar, S. ; Kolishetti, N. ; Lippard, S. J. ; Farokhzad, O. C. Targeted delivery of a cisplatin prodrug for safer and more effective prostate cancer therapy in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2011, 108, 1850-1855.

Kolishetti, N. ; Dhar, S. ; Valencia, P. M. ; Lin, L. Q. ; Karnik, R. ; Lippard, S. J. ; Langer, R. ; Farokhzad, O. C. Engineering of self-assembled nanoparticle platform for precisely controlled combination drug therapy. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2010, 107, 17939-17944, S17939/1-S17939/3.

Dhar, S. ; Lippard, S. J. Mitaplatin, a potent fusion of cisplatin and the orphan drug dichloroacetate. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2009, 106, 22199-22204, S22199/1-S22199/11.

Dhar, S. ; Daniel, W. L. ; Giljohann, D. A. ; Mirkin, C. A. ; Lippard, S. J.Polyvalent Oligonucleotide Gold Nanoparticle Conjugates as Delivery Vehicles for Platinum(IV) Warheads. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 14652-14653.

Tennyson, A. G. ; Dhar, S. ; Lippard, S. J. Synthesis and Characterization of {Ni(NO)}10 and {Co(NO)2}10 Complexes Supported by Thiolate Ligands. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 15087-15098.

Dhar, S. ; Liu, Z. ; Thomale, J. ; Dai, H. ; Lippard, S. J. Targeted Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube-Mediated Pt(IV) Prodrug Delivery Using Folate as a Homing Device. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 11467-11476.

Dhar, S. ; Gu, F. X. ; Langer, R. ; Farokhzad, O. C. ; Lippard, S. J. Targeted delivery of cisplatin to prostate cancer cells by aptamer functionalized Pt(IV) prodrug-PLGA-PEG nanoparticles. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2008, 105, 17356-17361.

Dhar, S. ; Kodama, T. ; Greenberg, M. M. Selective Detection and Quantification of Oxidized Abasic Lesions in DNA. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007,129, 8702-8703.

Dhar, S. ; Senapati, D. ; Das, P. K. ; Chattopadhyay, P. ; Nethaji, M. ; Chakravarty, A. R. Ternary Copper Complexes for Photocleavage of DNA by Red Light: Direct Evidence for Sulfur-to-Copper Charge Transfer and d-d Band Involvement. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 12118-12124.

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