Aejaz Sayeed, PhD

Dr. Aejaz Sayeed is a cancer biologist with 22 years of pre-clinical cancer biology research and project management experience. His research interests are focused on the mechanisms of cancer progression and development of refractory states with a special emphasis on cellular signaling, metabolism, targeted therapeutics and microvesicles.

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Dr. Aejaz’s current focus is on establishing a liquid biopsy platform for surveillance, risk prediction and early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma in efforts towards establishing circulating molecular signatures identifying high-risk patients. As a research faculty at Thomas Jefferson University he studied the molecular crosstalk between β1 integrins and insulin-like growth factor receptor. He received an American Cancer Society/IRG award for this work. Using in vivo conditional transgenic model systems of prostate cancer, Dr. Aejaz investigated underlying molecular mechanisms of radiation resistance and also dissected the role of exosomes in prostate cancer progression. As a research associate scientist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, he specialized in creating a battery of primary breast cancer cell lines representing a spectrum of histologic grades of the disease and investigated genetic signatures associated with cancer aggressiveness in an effort to discover and characterize novel molecular markers of the aggressive disease. While working in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute Dr. Aejaz conducted a pioneering study in establishing the molecular interaction between tumor suppressor p53 and estrogen receptor in breast cancer which explained the compromised tumor suppression in p53 wild type tumors.

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Dr. Sayeed has developed substantial collaborations with scientists and clinicians. He is playing critical role in establishing an institutional partnership between Blumberg Institute, PA and Capital Health Hospital, NJ. He has extensive experience in reviewing scientific findings and literature, competing for extramural/intramural support, writing manuscripts and technical reports of completed research projects. He has initiatied and orally defended several human research protocols to institutional IRB committees for OHR/IRB approval. He has published and presented more than 20 scientific publications. He is an expert on scientific journals and frequently reviews scientific articles for various peer-reviewed journals like Journal of Cellular Physiology, Plos One, Cancer Biology and Therapy, BMC Gastroenterology, Digestive Disease and Science, etc. Dr. Sayeed has extensive experience in advanced technologies in areas of immunology, molecular & developmental biology, Next generation sequencing, polymorphism/SNP analysis, RNA interference, Primary tumor culture model systems, Stem cell technology, mouse mammalian genetics, He is actively collaborating with several biotech companies in developing diagnostic bio- assays and testing new therapies. In collaboration with Qrum Pharma, Dr Sayeed validated a COVID 19 diagnostic kit by PCR before submission to regulatory agencies and led studies on biological assays to evaluate neurotoxicity of small molecules in collaboration with Arbutus Inc. Overall, Dr. Aejaz is an established investigator and has made conceptual advances in connecting signaling to gene expression to aggressive phenotypes, and paved the way for new directions in biomedical research.