Prakash Rai
Prakash Rai
Assistant Professor,
  • :978-934-4971
  • :518-470-5220

Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Massachusetts
USA

Education

Year Degree Institution
2003 Bachelor of Chemical Engineering University of Mumbai, India
2007 Master of Chemical & Biological Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2007 Ph.D., Chemical & Biological Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

 

Biography

“Prakash Rai, Ph.D., joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at UMass Loweel as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Fall 2012. Prior to this he was an Instructor at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rai is currently working on developing translational nanotechnology-based platforms for imaging, prevention and treatment of breast cancer. His research involves designing, synthesizing, characterizing, and evaluating the efficacy of these nano-platforms in cell culture, as well as animal models of the disease. Dr. Rai has several first author publications in journals including Nature Biotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Angewandte Chemie, and Cancer Research. In 2010, Dr. Rai was chosen to receive the "Scholar in Training" award by the American Association of Cancer Research. Dr. Rai received his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India in 2003 and his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007. Recently he received a grant award from the National Cancer institute to carry out research in the area of cancer nanomedicine"

 

Research Interest

Nanotechnology; Targeted Drug Delivery; Nanomedicine; Medical Imaging; Molecular Imaging; Cancer Research; Theranostics; Breast Cancer; Nanobiotechnology; Cancer Biology; Biotechnology; Biomedical Engineering; Bioengineering; Biomaterials; Tissue Engineering

 

Professional Activities:

Honors and Awards:

2003-2007 Howard P. Isermann Graduate Fellowship, RPI – Troy, NY
2009 Poster of Distinction Award – ORCD-MGH, Boston, MA.
2009 International Photodynamic Association Travel Award, Seattle, WA.
2009 Featured Panelist for a Press Conference on Emerging Treatments in Pancreatic Cancer- International Conference in Boston, MA.
2010 American Association of Cancer Research Scholar-in-Training Award 2010   American Society of Photobiology, Urbach Travel Award, Providence, RI.
2010 American Association of Cancer Research Travel Award to attend workshop titled “Translational Medicine for Basic Scientists”, Boston, MA.
2010 “Pathway to Independence” grant award from NCI/NIH.
2012 Cancer Nanotechnology Career Development Award from NCI/NIH
2012 Paper titled “Development and applications of photo-triggered theranostic agents” named # 19 on the List of Top 20 Most Downloaded Articles in Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

 

Publications

  1. Carrillo, A.; Gujraty, K.; Rai, P.; Kane, R. S. “Design of Water-Soluble, Thiol-Reactive Polymers of Controlled Molecular Weight: a Novel Multivalent Scaffold”, Nanotechnology, 2005, 16, S416-S421
  2. Rai, P.; Padala, C.; Poon, V.; Saraph, A.; Basha, S.; Kate, S.; Tao, K.; Mogridge, J.; Kane, R. S. “Statistical Pattern Matching Facilitates the Design of Polyvalent Inhibitors of Anthrax and Cholera Toxins”, Nature Biotechnology, 2006, 24, 582
  3. Basha, S.; Rai, P.; Poon, V.; Saraph, A.; Gujraty, K.; Go, M.; Sadacharan, S.; Frost, M.; Mogridge, J.; Kane, R. S. “Polyvalent Inhibitors of Anthrax Toxin that Target Host Receptors”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 2006, 103, 13509-13513
  4. Rai, P. R.; Saraph, A.; Ashton, R.; Poon, V.; Mogridge, J.; Kane, R. S.“Raft-inspired Polyvalent Inhibitors of Anthrax Toxin: Modulating Inhibitory Potency by Formation of Lipid Microdomains,”Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2007, 119, 2257-2259
  5. Rai, P.; Vance, D.; Poon, V.; Mogridge,J,; Kane, R.S. “Stable and Potent Polyvalent Anthrax Toxin Inhibitors: Raft-Inspired Domain Formation in Liposomes Containing PEGylated Lipids”, Chemistry- A European Journal, 2008, 14, 7748-7751
  6. Joshi, A.; Vance, D.; Rai, P.; Thiyagarajan, A.; Kane, R.S. “The Design of Polyvalent Therapeutics”, Chemistry- A European Journal, 2008; 14(26):7738-47.
  7. Li X, Chen H, Khan AA, Lauterbach SB, Lanzillotti R, Rai PR, Kane RS, Coetzer TL, Chishti AH. Receptor-based identification of an inhibitory peptide against blood stage malaria. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2008 Nov 21;376(3):489-93.
  8. Rai P, Chang SK, Mai Z, Neuman D, Hasan T. Nanotechnology-based combination therapy improves treatment response in cancer models. Proc SPIE, 7380, 73800W, 2009.
  9. Latorre-Esteves E, Akilov OE, Rai P, Beverley SM, Hasan T., Monitoring the efficacy of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy in a murine model of cutaneous leishmaniasis using L. major expressing GFP. Journal of Biophotonics. 2010 Jun;3(5-6):328-35
  10. Rahmanzadeh R;, Rai P;, Gerdes J;, Hasan T.; Targeted light-inactivation of the Ki-67 protein using theranostic liposomes leads to death of proliferating cells. Proc. SPIE, 7576, 2010, 757602.
  11. Spring BQ;, Mai Z;, Rai P;, Chang SK;, Hasan T.; Theranostic Nanocells for Simultaneous Imaging and Photodynamic therapy of Pancreatic Cancer. Proc. SPIE, 7551, 2010, 755104.
  12. Pogue B;, Srinivasan S;, Samkoe K;, Zheng L;, Rai P;, Verma S;, Hasan T. Analytic modeling of in vivo drug delivery: comparison of antibody versus vesicle-mediated delivery to tumor cells. Proc. SPIE, 7551, 2010, 755117.
  13. Rai P., Mallidi, S., Zheng, X., Rahmanzadeh, R., Mir, Y., Elrington, S., Khurshid, A., Hasan T., Development and Applications of Photo-triggered Theranostic Agents, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 2010, Aug 30;62(11):1094-124. Epub 2010 Sep 19.
  14.  Rahmanzadeh R., Rai P., Celli J., Rizvi I., Hasan T., Ki-67 as a molecular target for therapy in an in vitro 3D model for ovarian cancer. Cancer Research 2010, Nov 15;70(22):9234-42. Epub 2010 Nov 2
  15. Hasan T., Rai P., Verma S., Zheng X., 3.1.2 Molecular targeting of photosensitizers. Handbook of Biophotonics , Volume 3 Set. 1. Edition - October 2011
  16. Rai P., Losak M., Yarmush, M.L., Remotely Triggered Theranostics for Cancer Applications. Journal of Healthcare Engineering, 2013.
  17. Kanik Fe, Sneider, A, Rai P. Demirkol, D. Timur, S. , Nanomaterials in Cell Imaging, Innovations in Nanomaterials, Series: Nanotechnology Science and Technology, 2015 (Book chapter)

Manuscripts  Submitted/Under  Review:

  1. Rai P., Losak M., Yarmush, M.L., Chemopreventive nanoconstructs for breast cancer”
  2. Rai. P., Yarmush M.L. “Nanotechnology for triple combination chemopreventive therapy of breast cancer” re-submitted, 2014
  3. Rai P., Yarmush M.L. “ In vivo nanochemoprevention of breast cancer” submitted, 2014
  4. EkizKanik F., Tsiros C., Rai, P. “ Targeted delivery of curcumin against triple-negative breast cancer” Manuscript in preparation, 2015
  5. Jadia R., Scandore C., Rai P., “Nanoparticle mediated combination therapy of cancer” Manuscript in preparation, 2015.          

 

 

 

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