— College of Medicine — Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy — About Us — Faculty — Mohsin Raza, PhD

Mohsin Raza, PhD

Instructor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Anatomy

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Dr. Mohsin Raza is currently working as an instructor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Anatomy at UNMC. Dr. Raza holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry and Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Raza worked in the field of protein biochemistry and drug delivery and developed natural lipid-based drug carriers for anti-microbial drug delivery. Dr. Raza conducted his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Vimla Band at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. As a postdoctoral fellow, he investigated the role of novel cellular proteins promoting the progression of breast and prostate cancers. Current research interests of Dr. Raza involve understanding molecular pathways leading to progression and metastases of breast and prostate cancers with the goal to identify novel drug targets that can be exploited towards the development of alternative therapeutic interventions.

Education

Post-doc, University of Nebraska Medical Center
PhD, Biochemistry, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
MSc, Biomedical Sciences, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

Research

Dr. Raza's research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms and functions of novel proteins that play a critical role in epithelial cell immortalization and promote progression of breast and prostate cancers. They are interested in identifying cellular targets that promote tumor metastases and chemoresistance with the overarching goal to identify pathways that can be easily targeted to develop novel therapeutic alternatives. Special emphasis is on a protein Ecdysoneless (ECD), which they and others have reported to play a role in various aspects of cancer development and progression. High ECD expression has been associated with poor prognosis and short survival of patients. Studies in the laboratory include i) identification of upstream regulators of ECD that control the expression of this protein; ii) define oncogenic/co-oncogenic functions of ECD in different cancer types; iii) understanding the role of ECD in RNA biogenesis and defining its role in ER stress and glucose metabolism.

Selected Publications

Raza M, Bharti H, Chauhan C, Singal A, Jha D, Ghosh PC, Nag A. Enhanced anti-malarial efficacy of mefloquine delivered via cationic liposome in a murine model of experimental cerebral malaria. Eur J Pharm Biopharm. 2024 Feb 8;:114210. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2024.114210. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 38340876.
Luan H, Bielecki TA, Mohapatra BC, Islam N, Mushtaq I, Bhat AM, Mirza S, Chakraborty S, Raza M, Storck MD, Toss MS, Meza JL, Thoreson WB, Coulter DW, Rakha EA, Band V, Band H. EHD2 overexpression promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer by regulating store-operated calcium entry. Elife. 2023 Jan 10;12. doi: 10.7554/eLife.81288. PubMed PMID: 36625722; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9988264.
Mohapatra BC, Mirza S, Bele A, Gurumurthy CB, Raza M, Saleem I, Storck MD, Sarkar A, Kollala SS, Shukla SK, Southekal S, Wagner KU, Qiu F, Lele SM, Alsaleem MA, Rakha EA, Guda C, Singh PK, Cardiff RD, Band H, Band V. Ecdysoneless Overexpression Drives Mammary Tumorigenesis through Upregulation of C-MYC and Glucose Metabolism. Mol Cancer Res. 2022 Sep 2;20(9):1391-1404. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-22-0122. PubMed PMID: 35675041; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9437571.