Aashir Awan, PhD

Molecular & Cell Biologist

adkabl@r.postjobfree.com / 609-***-****

http://www.linkedin.com/in/aashirawan

Techniques Summary

Cell Biology/Biochemistry: culturing of primary cell lines (including from cancer biopsies and immune cells), in vivo mouse modeling, western blots, assay development, elisas/MSD, HTS/HTRF, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence microscopy, protein purification (column chromatography);

Molecular Biology: qPCR/gene cards, nuclei acid isolation, lentivirus generation/infections, transfections, RNAi;

Computer Skills: MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Adobe Photoshop, Vector NTI, Sequencher, Image 1.42, Graph Pad Prism, LIMS, bioinformatics analysis (eg NCBI, TCGA, MEM, etc). Research Experience

07/17-02/20 Scientist, Palatin Technologies (Cranbury, NJ)

High throughput screening using HTRF assays on cell lines to screen melanocortin/ natriuretic compounds to determine pharmacological activity/ SAR for treatment of immune pathologies (inflammatory bowel disease, dry eye), fibrosis, obesity;

Assay development of MC1R and NPRC assays towards understanding biased agonism for GPCRs and identification of compounds towards potential therapeutics for heart diseases;

Data analysis (Graphpad Prism) for entry into compound database;

Coordination and designing of in vivo/in vitro studies with CRO to identify relevant biomarkers and signaling pathways. 07/15-07/16 Research Scientist (In Vivo), Boehringer Ingelheim (Ridgefield, CT)

Investigation of immune signal transduction pathways in pre-clinical/drug discovery phase of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) treatments using mouse modeling for screening compounds;

Conducting in vivo experiments testing the efficacy of inhibitors/drugs (e.g. small molecules against ROR t, CD226, etc.) or antibodies (e.g. p19/p40 against IL12/IL23) in key components of the immunology pathway using plasma/fecal/tissue samples from IBD mouse modeling (anti-Cd40 induced) experiments for gene expression (i.e. RNA isolation using automated liquid handling, cDNA synthesis, 384-well microfluidic gene cards), elisa as well as the subsequent data analysis (GraphPad) of biomarkers;

ex vivo analysis of primary immune cells to establish splenocyte assays for screening of compounds using elisa and RNA analysis. 09/13-10/14 Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, CT)

Development of approaches to targeted therapies for human salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) using mammalian culturing, immunofluorescence microscopy, qPCR, PDX mouse modeling, RNAi, SDS-PAGE western blots and bioinformatics analysis;

Characterization of a cancer testis antigen as biomarker of salivary ACC/triple negative breast cancer cells and demonstrated a role for a specific peptide inhibitor’s ability to disrupt cell adhesion of 3 different triple negative breast cancer lines;

Culturing the first primary human salivary ACC cell lines (ACCX6, ACC33) from patient-derived samples (using a modified stem cell media) and validated using biomarker analysis;

Analysis of specific stem cell markers using siRNA (against Sox10, FABP7, Notch1) or small molecules (SBF160) in proliferation/qPCR assays, cell fractionation (MACS) of human salivary ACC and breast cancer lines. Education/Training

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (2011-2013)

Oncology/Development Fellowship

Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, Spain (2009-2011)

Signal Transduction Fellowship

University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark (2006-2009) Stem Cell/Ovarian Cancer Fellowship

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (2006) PhD in Cell Biology, Advisor: Peter Satir

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (1999) MS in Cell Biology, Advisor: Mitchell Bernstein

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (1994)

B.A. Biology, Minor Hispanic Studies

Honors

2015 NIH/NCI, 1R01 CA196200-01A1 (Investigator);

2009 Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (Spain);

2008 Danish Cancer Society Fellowship;

2006 Lundbeck Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (Denmark);

2005 Keith Porter Speaker Award (FASEB).

Publications

Awan A (2015) Cancer Biology and Genomics for Disease Diagnosis (Series C: e-Books on Cancer & Oncology Book 1). Sections 2.11, 10.2. Vestergaard ML, Awan A, Warzecha CB, Christensen ST, Andersen CY (2014) Immunofluorescence and mRNA Analysis of Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) grown under feeder-free conditions. Methods Mol Biol 1307:123-140. Egeberg DL, Lethan M, Manguso R, Schneider L, Awan A, Jørgensen TS, Byskov AG, Pedersen LB, Christensen ST (2012) Primary cilia and aberrant cell signaling in epithelial ovarian cancer. Cilia 1:1-15. Guldal CG, Ahmad A, Korhunov A, Squatrito M, Awan A, Mainwaring LA, Bhatia B, Parathath SR, Nahle Z, Pfister S, Kenney AM (2012) An essential role for p38 MAPK downstream of Sonic hedgehog mitogenic signaling in cerebellar neural precursors. Acta Neuropathologica 123: 573-586. Fernandez-L A, Squatrito M, Northcott P, Awan A, Holland EC, Taylor MD, Nahlé Z, Kenney AM (2011) Oncogenic YAP promotes radioresistance and genomic instability in medulloblastoma through IGF2-mediated Akt activation. Oncogene 379:1-15. Awan A, Oliveri RO, Jensen PL, Christensen ST, Andersen CY (2010) Immunofluorescence and mRNA Analysis of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

(hESCs) grown under feeder-free conditions. Methods Mol Biol. 584:195-210. Awan A, Bell AJ, Satir P (2009) Kin5 knockdown in Tetrahymena thermophila using RNAi. PLoS One 4(3): e4873. Veland IR, Awan A, Pedersen LB, Yoder BK, Christensen ST (2009) Primary cilia and signaling pathways in mammalian development, health and disease. Nephron Physiol. 111(3): 39-53.

Nielsen SK, Møllgård K, Clement CA, Veland IR, Awan A, Yoder BK, Novak I, Christensen ST (2008) Characterization of primary cilia and Hedgehog signalling during development of the human pancreas and in human pancreatic duct cancer cell lines. Dev Dyn 237(8): 2039-2052.

(Kiprilov1 E, Awan1 A), Desperat R, Velho M, Celment CA, Byskov AG, Andersen CY, Satir P, Bouhassira EE, Christensen ST, Hirsch RE (2008) Human embryonic stem cells in culture possess primary cilia with hedgehog signaling machinery. J Cell Biol. 180(5): 897-904.

(1 Both Authors contributed equally)

Awan A, Bernstein M, Hamasaki T, Satir P (2004) Cloning and characterization of Kin5, a novel Tetrahymena ciliary kinesin II. Cell Motil Cytoskeleton 58(1):1-9.

Christensen ST, Guerra CF, Awan A, Wheatley DN, Satir P (2003) Insulin receptor-like proteins in Tetrahymena thermophila ciliary membranes. Curr Biol. 13(2):R50-R52.

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