Avik Roy, PhD
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Affiliation(s):
SIMMARON RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Lab URL:
Areas of Interest:
neurobiology
Biography & Research:
Avik Roy received his PhD in Neuroscience from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. His primary research interest is to study the role of glial activation and inflammation in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease. He has demonstrated that the loss of function in bpoz2 gene plays a crucial role in the development of Lewybody pathology causing the death of DA neurons. His pioneering work in deciphering the role of an ankyrin repeat-rich protein BPOZ2 in the amelioration of alpha-synuclein pathology was awarded with Rapid Response Innovation Award by Michael J Fox Foundation of Parkinson's disease. His quest to decode the biological role of bpoz2 gene eventually achieved a new dimension when a 9 year-old boy with homozygous point mutation in bpoz2 gene was reported to have abnormal gait with severe movement deficit. He is working on this clinical case with multiple funding from different sources. As an assistant professor at Rush Medical College, Dr. Roy published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Nature Chemical Biology, Cell Metabolism, Cell Reports, PNAS, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Science Signaling, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Immunology, and Journal of Biological Chemistry. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including the JE Trufant Excellence in Research Award conferred by Rush Graduate College, the Young Investigator Educational Enhancement Award presented by American Society for Neurochemistry, RRIA award by MJF foundation, Certificate of Merit by Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and many more. In order to pursue his long-term research interest to develop cutting-edge molecular therapies against various metabolic disorders, he left Rush 2020 to form Sotira Scientific, a BioTech company with three other partners. His cutting-edge discovery on KEPTIDE earned him a fast track US patent for its application in COVID-19 (#11,078,242). He had multiple other patents on brain-derived lipid-lowering ligands that can be applied in neuronal diseases such as AD, PD, and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Roy is currently serving as chief scientific officer (CSO) and principal investigator in Simmaron Research INC, a non-profit clinical and research facility on ME/CFS.
