Distinguished Scientist: Amar Singh, Ph.D.

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony for UNMC’s 2017 Scientist Laureate, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator Award recipients.

• Name: Amar Singh, Ph.D.
• Title: Associate professor, UNMC Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine
• Joined UNMC: Oct. 1, 2014
• Hometown: Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh India

Research focus:

• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Colorectal cancer
• Renal cell carcinoma

The goal of my research is:
Our long-term research goals are:

• To develop prognostic biomarkers of disease severity for the IBD, therapy response, and progression to colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC).
• To identify novel therapeutic targets for limiting disease onset and progression.
• To identify probiotic factors and dietary interventions for improving gut barrier functions.
• To provide mechanistic understanding of renal injury/repair, fibrosis, and renal clear cell carcinoma for therapeutic gains.

My research will make a difference because:
Hippocrates, the great physician of his time, described, “All disease begins in the gut.” Now, thousands of years later, we strongly believe that our gut is the “epicenter” for the health in our body. Moreover, researchers believe that supporting intestinal health and restoring the integrity of the gut wall will be one of the most important goals of medicine in the next 10 years, which is the central focus of the studies in our laboratory. Importantly, we are investigating the role and regulation of the gut barrier in mucosal inflammatory conditions as well as neoplastic transformation and growth. We also study how cellular stress response machinery (autophagy), gut microbiota and barrier properties modify each other under pathological conditions and whether prebiotic and/or probiotic interventions can help modulate such interdependences to create a healthy gut microenvironment.

The best advice I’ve ever been given is:
“Never accept a setback before trying” and “Truth always prevails.”

Three things you may not know about me are:

• My beautiful wife is also a scientist and we are proud parents of two handsome young boys.
• One of my deep desires is to travel around the world.
• At a young age, I aspired to become an Air Force pilot to fly supersonic jets.