Research Interest

My research focuses on immunology and inflammation in allergic, immunologic and infectious viral diseases and cancers. The current research programs include: molecular biology and genetics of IgE responsiveness, molecular mechanisms of virus infection, development of prophylactic/therapeutic gene transfer, development of genetic antivirals, molecular basis of genetic predisposition to inflammatory diseases and application of nanotechnology to biomedicine.

• Dr. Mohapatra has attracted more than $20 million in extramural research funds to USF and his technology inventions have resulted in several spin-out companies.  Since joining the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in 1996, he has been issued 19 U.S. patents, and has several patents pending. He is a fellow of theNational Academy of Inventors.

Dr. Mohapatra’s inventions and discoveries with applications for society include following:

• He invented intranasal gene transfer technology to help combat respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a potentially lethal respiratory infection that can severely affect infants, young children and the elderly.  Dr. Mohapatra’s approach, using chitosan nanospheres to elicit a local immune response in the airways, has the potential to deliver genes and other therapeutics, including RNA, for a wide range of respiratory viruses.
• Dr. Mohapatra’s invention of the oligo-adenylate synthatase antiviral technology involving a “wellness gene” has been licensed to Kineta Inc., of Seattle, WA, and the company plans to conduct a Phase I clinical trial in Europe this year. This technology is being used to create a vaccine/treatment against several RNA viral diseases affecting billions of patients world-wide, including hepatitis C, influenza, RSV, and dengue.
• Working with Dr. Loren Walensky from Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mohapatra recently demonstrated that nanoparticles could carry designer peptides to the lungs and other organs and boost the capacity of the novel double-stapled peptides to block RSV infection.
• Dr. Mohapatra co-founded the Tampa-based, nanobiotechnology company TransGenex, which initially licensed technology from USF and has also developed and commercialized its own nanoscale technology platforms, including HIV detection methods.   Research by Dr. Mohapatra led to a rapid HIV-detection kit that provides a diagnosis in 20 seconds.
• Dr. Mohapatra and Subhra Mohapatra, PhD, of the USF Health Department of Molecular Medicine, invented a nanoscale fiber scaffold, which allows tumor cells to replicate in a laboratory petri dish more like tumors grow in the human body.  In addition to facilitating research using three-dimensional tumors instead of two-dimensional tumor cell cultures, the technology may help address several hurdles in cancer therapeutics, including more effective testing of tumor response to anti-cancer drugs and screening biopsied tumor tissue for personalized cancer treatment.  The work led to the development of a proprietary “Tumor-on-a-dish” platform, which TransGenex is commercializing.