Chandrika Behura, M.D.Associate Professor, Department Of Pediatrics
500 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
Email: cxg40@psu.edu
“Four diamond not only helps children who are fighting cancer today but the organization is also making a huge difference in lives of children who will be diagnosed with cancer years from now by funding clinically meaningful cancer research here at Penn State Children’s Hospital and Penn State College of Medicine”
John Wawrynovic Leukemia Research Scholar Endowment
“Role of Ikaros and CK2 in childhood Leukemia”
$20,000
2014-Present
KL2CTSI Scholar Award, Penn State University
“Targeting Casein Kinase II (CK2) oncogenic signaling in pediatric Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)”
$25,000/year
2018-2020
St Baldrick’s Foundation Scholar Award
“Targeting Casein Kinase II (CK2) oncogenic signalinig in high-risk leukemia”
$110,000/year
2017-2020
Hyundai Hope on Wheels Foundation Young Investigator Award
“Novel combination therapy using CK2 inhibitor in high risk pediatric Leukemia”
$150,000
07/01/2017-06/30/2019
Rally Foundation Young Investigator Grant
“Novel therapy using Casein Kinase CK2 inhibitor in high risk B-ALL Leukemia”
$50,000
07-01-2017-06/30/2018
Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP)
“Novel therapeutic combination of a polyamine pathway inhibitor (DFMO) and Genistein for treatment of Neuroblastoma”
$5,000
07/01/2016-06/30/2017
Association of Faculty and Friends (AFF)
“Novel targeted combination therapy for neuroblastoma”
07/01/2015-06/30/2016
Hyundai Hope on Wheels
“Regulation of Ikaros control of cell cycle progression in pediatric leukemia”
10/01/2012-09/30/2014
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
“Regulation of Ikaros tumor suppression activity in childhood”
07/01/2012-06/30/2015
Dr. Chandrika Behura is a board-certified hematologist/oncologist who has strong commitment to research in childhood cancer, including leukemia and neuroblastoma. Her major research project is to study Role of Ikaros tumor suppressor and pro-oncogenic casein Kinase II(CK2) in leukemogenesis and drug resistance. Dr. Behura’s current work is focused on targeting CK2 for treatment of hematological malignancies.
Her most notable work, published in Blood in 2015, established the novel approach of using specific CK2 inhibitors for treatment of high-risk B cell lineage leukemia using PDX models. She has presented her work at various national and international scientific forums and gained national recognition as an outstanding young investigator.
Dr. Behura’s research is currently supported by several extramural grants. She has also authored several chapters and review articles related to leukemia, CK2 and Ikaros. Her other projects are focused on designing novel therapeutic strategies for treatment of high risk neuroblastoma, which is the most common abdominal solid tumor in young children with poor prognosis.
The following are publications of Dr. Behura’s lab since 2015:
Yali Ding, Bo Zhang, Jonathon Payne, Chunhua Song, Zheng Ge, Chandrika Gowda, Soumya Iyer, Pavan Dhanyamraju, Glenn Dorsam, Mark Reeves, Dhimant Desai, Suming Huang, Kimberly Payne, Feng Yue, and Dovat Sinisa, Ikaros tumor suppressor function includes induction of active enhancers and super-enhancers along with pioneering activity” Leukemia, March, 2019- accepted for publication [Paper #18-LEU-1462R]
Gowda C, Soliman M, Kapadia M, Ding Y, Payne K, Dovat S. Casein Kinase II (CK2), Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (GSK-3) and Ikaros mediated regulation of leukemia. Adv Biol Regul. 2017 Jun 13. pii: S2212-4926(17)30090-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jbior.2017.06.001. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:28623166
Song C, Pan X, Ge Z, Gowda C, Ding Y, Li H, Li Z, Yochum G, Muschen M, Li Q, Payne KJ, Dovat S. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression by Ikaros, HDAC1 and Casein Kinase II (CK2) in leukemia. Leukemia 2016. 30, 1436–1440; doi:10.1038/leu.2015.331
Wang H, Song C, Ding Y, Pan X, Ge Z, Tan BH, Gowda C, Sachdev M, Muthusami S, Ouyang H, Lai L, Francis OL, Morris CL, Abdel-Azim H, Dorsam G, Xiang M, Payne KJ, Dovat S. Transcriptional regulation of JARID1B/KDM5B histone demethylase by Ikaros, Histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and Casein kinase 2 (CK2) in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J Biol Chem. 2016 Feb 19;291(8):4004-18. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M115.679332. Epub 2015 Dec 10. PMID: 26655717
Gowda CS, Song C, Ding Y, Kapadia M, Dovat S. Protein signaling and regulation of gene transcription in leukemia: role of Casein Kinase II-Ikaros axis. J Investig Med. 2016 Mar; 64(3):735-9. doi: 10.1136/jim-2016-000075. Epub 2016 Feb 9. PMID: 26912004
Gowda C, Song C, Kapadia M, Payne JL, Hu T, Ding Y, Dovat S; Regulation of cellular proliferation in acute lymphoblastic leukemia by Casein Kinase II (CK2) and Ikaros;. Adv Biol Regul. 2016 Sep 18. pii: S2212-4926(16)30039-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jbior.2016.09.003. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PMID: 27666503
Gowda C, Sachdev M, Muthusami S, Kapadia M, Petrovic-Dovat L, Hartman M, Ding Y, Song C, Payne JL, Tan BH, Dovat S. Casein kinase II (CK2) as a therapeutic target for hematological malignancies. Curr Pharm Des. 2016 Oct 6;PubMed PMID: 27719640
Gowda C, Dovat S, Chapter: ‘Genetic Targets in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia’ – Impact of Genetic targets in cancer therapy. http://www.springer.com/978-1-4614-6175-3
Chandrika Gowda, Olivia L. Francis, Yali Ding, Parveen Shiraz,Kimberly J. Payne and Sinisa Dovat (2015). Pediatric High Risk Leukemia — Molecular Insights, Leukemias – Updates and New Insights, Prof. Margarita Guenova (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-2202-9, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/61247. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/leukemias-updates-and-new-insights/pediatric-high-risk-leukemia-molecular-insights
Song C*, Gowda C*, Pan X, Ding Y, Tong Y, Tan BH, Wang H, Muthusami S, Ge Z, Sachdev M, Amin SG, Desai D, Gowda K, Gowda R, Robertson GP, Schjerven H, Muschen M, Payne KJ, Dovat S. Targeting casein kinase II restores Ikaros tumor suppressor activity and demonstrates therapeutic efficacy in high-risk leukemia. Blood 2015 Oct 8;126(15):1813-22. doi: 10.1182/blood-2015-06-651505. PMID: 26219304 *First author
Editorial highlight in Inside Blood: Blood 2015 126: 1735-1736. doi:10.1182/blood-2015-08-662544
