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Faculty Profile

Anirban RoyAnirban Roy

Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Office: 
University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Health 2, Room 5008
4349 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-5037

Contact: aroy24@central.uh.edu - phone N/A

Research:

My research is focused on understanding the signaling and molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle atrophy and hypertrophy; skeletal muscle regeneration; and muscle degeneration during muscular dystrophy. I am also interested in studying the metabolic changes in skeletal muscle under physiological and pathophysiological conditions and its impact on whole body metabolism.

  • Ph.D., Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
  • M.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
  • B.Sc., Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India

Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Joshi AS*, Tomaz da Silva M*, Roy A* et al. The IRE1α/XBP1/Myomaker axis drives myoblast fusion in adult skeletal muscle bioRxiv 2023.09.26.559625; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.26.559625.
    *Equal contribution first author
  • Tomaz da Silva M, Joshi AS, Castillo MB, Koike TE, Roy A, Gunaratne PH, Kumar A (2023). Fn14 promotes myoblast fusion during regenerative myogenesis. Life Science Alliance manuscript in press.
  • Roy A*, Koike E T, Joshi S A, et al. (2023). Targeted regulation of TAK1 counteracts dystrophinopathy in a DMD mouse model. JCI Insight 2023;8(10):e164768.
    *Co-corresponding author.
  • Roy A, Koike E T, Joshi S A, et al. (2023). Targeted regulation of TAK1 counteracts dystrophinopathy in a DMD mouse model. JCI Insight Apr 18;e164768.
  • Roy A, Narkar VA, Kumar A (2023). Emerging role of TAK1 in the regulation of skeletal muscle mass. BioEssays, 45, e2300003.
  • Sopariwala, DH, Rios, AS, Pei, G, Roy A et al. (2022). Innately expressed estrogen-related receptors in the skeletal muscle are indispensable for exercise fitness. FASEB Journal. 2023; 37:e22727.
  • Tomaz da Silva M, Joshi S A, Koike E T, Roy A, et al. (2022). Targeted ablation of Fn14 receptor improves exercise capacity and inhibits neurogenic muscle atrophy. FASEB Journal. 12, 36.
  • Roy A, Kumar A. (2022). Supraphysiological activation of TAK1 promotes skeletal muscle growth and mitigates neurogenic atrophy. Nature Communications 13, 2201.
  • Roy A, Tomaz da Silva M, Bhat R, Bohnert KR, Iwawaki T, and Kumar A. (2021). The IRE1/XBP1 signaling axis promotes skeletal muscle regeneration through a cell non-autonomous mechanism. eLife.10:e73215.
  • Parveen A, Bohnert KR, Tomaz da Silva M, Wen Y, Bhat R, Roy A, Kumar A. (2021). MyD88-mediated signaling intercedes in neurogenic muscle atrophy through multiple mechanisms. FASEB Journal. Aug;35(8):e21821.
  • Parveen A, Wen Y, Roy A, Kumar A. (2021). Therapeutic Targeting of Pten in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Molecular Therapy: the Journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy, 29(1):8-9
  • Roy A, Sharma AK, Nellore K, Narkar VA, Kumar A. (2020). TAK1 preserves skeletal muscle mass and mitochondrial function through redox homeostasis. FASEB BioAdvances. 2 (9), 538-553.
  • Roy A, Kumar A. (2019). ER stress and unfolded protein response in cancer cachexia. Cancers (Basel)11 (12), 1929.
  • Bohnert KR, Goli P, Roy A, Sharma AK, Xiong G, Gallot YS, Kumar A. (2019). TLR/MyD88/XBP1 signaling axis mediates skeletal musclewastingduringcancercachexia.MolecularCellBiology.39:e00184-19.
  • Roy A, Sarker S, Upadhyay P, Pal A, Adhikary A, Jana K, Ray M. (2018). Methylglyoxal at metronomic doses sensitizes breast cancer cells to doxorubicin and cisplatin causing synergistic induction of programmed cell death and inhibition of stemness. Biochemical Pharmacology.156, 322–339.
  • Roy A, Ahir M, Bhattacharya S, et al. (2017). Induction of Mitochondrial Apoptotic Pathway in Triple Negative Breast Carcinoma Cells by Methylglyoxal via Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species. Molecular Carcinogenesis;56(9):2086-2103. doi:10.1002/mc.22665.

Selected Presentations at Conferences

  • Roy A, Jana K, Ray M. Anticancer Activity of Methylglyoxal on Triple Negative Breast Carcinoma is primarily mediated by Reactive Oxygen Species – Poster presentation at the 19th International Conference on Oxidative Stress Reduction, Redox Homeostasis and Antioxidants, Paris Redox 2017 organized by The Sorbonne University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, France.
  • Roy A, Ray M. Preclinical Studies of Nanofabricated Methylglyoxal; Combination with Conventional Chemotherapeutic drugs and Effects on Cancer Stem Cells – Oral presentation at the 1st International Conference on Clinical Trial & Innovative Therapeutics held on July 2017 organized by SATA, SA and Larkin University, USA at Cape Town, South Africa.
  • Roy A, Ghosh A, Ray M. Methylglyoxal Induces Mitochondria Dependent Apoptosis in Sarcoma and Carcinoma – Poster presentation at the EMBO Workshop on Mitochondria, Apoptosis and Cancer 2017 organized by the Joseph Stephan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia at Bled, Slovenia.
  • Roy A, Kumar A. TAK1 promotes skeletal muscle growth and inhibits neurogenic muscle atrophy. Oral presentation at the PPS Research Symposium 2021, College of Pharmacy University of Houston. USA.
  • Roy A, Kumar A. TAK1 is a positive regulator of skeletal muscle mass. Oral presentation at the PPS Research Symposium 2022, College of Pharmacy University of Houston. USA.
  • Roy A, Koike TE. Joshi AS et. al. Temporal regulation of TAK1 mitigates disease progression in a DMD mouse model. Poster presentation at the Advances in Skeletal Muscle Biology Conference, Myology Institute, University of Florida, USA.

Awards & Honors

  • Awarded 1st place, Postdoctoral Oral Presentation at the 2021 PPS Research Symposium, organized by The Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Houston
  • Awarded the EMBO Travel Grant for attending and presenting at EMBO Workshop2017 'Mitochondria, apoptosis and cancer'
  • Awarded a Travel Grant (2017) from Bose Institute, India, for poster presentation at the Paris Redox 2017 conference organized by University of Pierre Marie Curie, Paris, France
  • Qualified Joint CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (2011), India, Rank 65
  • Qualified JNU Combined Entrance Examination (2011) for Biotechnology Program 2010-2011, India

Peer-Reviews for Academic Journals

  • IScience (Cell Journals)
  • PLOS ONE (PLOS Journals)
  • Phytomedicine (Elsevier)
  • Frontiers in Oncology (Frontiers)
  • Frontiers in Genetics (Frontiers)
  • Cancers (MDPI)
  • Cells (MDPI)
  • Biomolecules (MDPI)
  • Muscle (MDPI)
  • International Journal of Molecular Medicine (MDPI)

Editorial Appointments and Society Memberships

  • Editorial Board Member (Early Career Researcher), FASEB J
  • Reviewer, National Science Foundation
  • Review Editor, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
  • Review Editor, Frontiers in Genetics
  • Member, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
  • Member, HEALTH NIMHD-RCMI Addictions Research and Cancer Prevention

Teaching

  • University of Houston College of Pharmacy Graduate School
  • 2023SP-25795-PCOL7333-Molecular Pharmacology Course (Lectures on Principles of viral vectors)