Dr. Abhinav Dey is an ALSF-funded Young Investigator at Emory University (Atlanta, GA). His 10-year experience in molecular biology and biochemistry, when combined with the interdisciplinary nature of his training, uniquely places him in fulfilling his role as a member of this editorial board. During his PhD, he worked on drug resistance mechanisms in tuberculosis at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India) and published his work twice in the journal Microbiology. To gain mechanistic insights on drug resistance he employed a variety of methodologies, which included molecular biology, biophysics, proteomics and systems biology. Before venturing into neuro-oncology, he trained himself in molecular virology and published a “highly accessed” paper in Virology Journal on the defense mechanisms of retroviruses in prostate cancer cells. His research career has seen a transition from the basics in microbiology through host -virus interactions in oncology to neuro-oncology. His work has resulted in several publications, which are well cited in journals like PNAS, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nucleic Acids Research. Because of his diverse background, he adopts an unbiased approach in his research. While working with pediatric brain tumors, he transitioned smoothly to a new biological system by applying his technical expertise in generating new clues to solving challenging questions. His ability to learn quickly and efficiently has enabled him to author a book chapter titled “Genetics of Medulloblastoma” and two research articles in Oncogene and Molecular Cancer Research within three years of working on medulloblastomas. He regularly interacts and collaborates with scientists from different laboratories within and outside of Emory (including Georgia Tech). Recently, American Association for Cancer Research and American Brain Tumor Foundation have selected him for “Scholar-in-training” award and he is a recipient of “Young Investigator Award” from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (2015). He was also awarded two grants earlier to study medulloblastoma proliferation and radiation resistance from Integrated Cellular Imaging Core of Emory University (as PI) and Cure Childhood Cancer Foundation (as co-I) in 2014. His scientific efforts in Cancer Biology have resulted in invited talks at international conferences organized by Emory University, Society for Neuro-Oncology, Company of Biologists, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer and Northwestern Mutual Foundation.

Transcriptional regulation; Developmental Biology; Microbial Drug resistance mechanisms; Oncology.