Prasad Dandawate, PhD

Professional Background

Dr. Dandawate earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a Master of Pharmacy with a specialization in Pharmacology, followed by a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry, from the University of Pune, India. He joined Dr. Shrikant Anant's laboratory at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2015 as a postdoctoral fellow, where he studied the prolactin receptor and histone demethylase KDM3A in pancreatic cancer. He was appointed Research Assistant Professor in 2019 and has led his own laboratory as an independent investigator since 2021. He is currently studying the role of taste receptor signaling in colon and esophageal cancer and neural-cancer interaction in the tumor microenvironment of Esophageal and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

• BS, Pharmacy, University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra
• MS, Pharmacology, University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra
• PhD, Chemistry, Savitribai Phule Pune University
• Post Doctoral Fellowship, Cancer Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS

• American Gastroenterological Association, AGA Grant Review Panel, Member, 2024 - 2028
• American Pancreatic Association, Member, 2018 - Present

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Research

Overview

Dr. Dandawate's research examines how cancer cells exploit receptor systems that evolved for entirely different purposes, and how those receptors can be targeted with new compounds or with drugs already approved for other uses. His laboratory pursues two funded research directions.

The first began with a clinical observation: patients with gastrointestinal cancers often report a persistent bitter taste that can precede their diagnosis. Screening all 25 human bitter taste receptors, his group found that one of them, TAS2R38, is specifically expressed in colorectal, esophageal, and bladder tumors, where it sustains cancer stem cell populations and promotes invasion. This work is supported by two consecutive Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Awards.
The second examines the nerves that infiltrate tumors and the role they play in the tumor microenvironment. Both pancreatic and esophageal adenocarcinomas are densely innervated, and his laboratory studies how chronic psychological stress acts through this nerve network to accelerate disease. His team identified a self-reinforcing loop in which stress-released histamine drives new nerve growth into the tumor while drawing cancer cells along those nerves, and showed that tumor cells sitting next to nerves adopt distinct immune signatures. Mapping this neural-cancer-immune interaction across both cancers, the laboratory is evaluating an FDA-approved antihistamine as a way to interrupt it. This work was supported by an American Gastroenterological Association Research Foundation Scholar Award.

A continuing interest is drug delivery and formulation. Many anticancer compounds are limited by poor water solubility and metabolic instability, and his group develops cyclodextrin-based formulations and nanoparticle carriers to overcome these barriers and concentrate drugs within tumors.

Dr. Dandawate has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles cited over 4,000 times, and has been named to the Stanford/Elsevier World's Top 2% Scientists list for five consecutive years. He teaches across seven graduate courses in Cancer Biology, developed a new course on anticancer drug discovery, and has mentored more than 25 trainees ranging from high school students to postdoctoral fellows. He serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Oncology, Scientific Reports, and BMC Molecular and Cell Biology.

• Dandawate P, Kaushik G, Ghosh C, Standing D, Ali Sayed AA, Choudhury S, Subramaniam D, Manzardo A, Banerjee T, Santra S, Ramamoorthy P, Butler M, Padhye SB, Baranda J, Kasi A, Sun W, Tawfik O, Coppola D, Malafa M, Umar S, Soares MJ, Saha S, Weir SJ, Dhar A, Jensen RA, Thomas SM, Anant S. 2019. Diphenylbutylpiperidine Antipsychotic Drugs Inhibit Prolactin Receptor Signaling to Reduce Growth of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma in Mice.. Gastroenterology
• Dandawate P, Ghosh C, Palaniyandi K, Paul S, Rawal S, Pradhan R, Sayed AAA, Choudhury S, Standing D, Subramaniam D, Padhye SB, Gunewardena S, Thomas SM, Neil MO, Tawfik O, Welch DR, Jensen RA, Maliski S, Weir S, Iwakuma T, Anant S, Dhar A. 2019. The Histone Demethylase KDM3A, Increased in Human Pancreatic Tumors, Regulates Expression of DCLK1 and Promotes Tumorigenesis in Mice.. Gastroenterology, 157 (6), 1646-1659.e11
• Dandawate P, Subramaniam D, Panovich P, Standing D, Krishnamachary B, Kaushik G, Thomas SM, Dhar A, Weir SJ, Jensen RA, Anant S. 2020. Cucurbitacin B and I inhibits colon cancer growth by targeting the Notch signaling pathway.. Scientific reports, 10 (1), 1290
• Dandawate P, Ahmed K, Padhye S, Ahmad A, Biersack B. 2020. Anticancer Active Heterocyclic Chalcones: Recent Developments.. Anti-cancer agents in medicinal chemistry
• Dandawate PR, Subramaniam D, Padhye SB, Anant S. 2016. Bitter melon: a panacea for inflammation and cancer.. Chinese journal of natural medicines, 14 (2), 81-100
• Ghaisas MM, Dandawate PR, Zawar SA, Ahire YS, Gandhi SP. 2010. Antioxidant, antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin in various experimental models.. Inflammopharmacology, 18 (4), 169-77
• Dandawate PR, Subramaniam D, Jensen RA, Anant S. 2016. Targeting cancer stem cells and signaling pathways by phytochemicals: Novel approach for breast cancer therapy.. Seminars in cancer biology, 40-41, 192-208