Affiliation: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Dr. Nitika is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in Dr. Andrew Truman’s lab. Her research interests involve determining how molecular chaperone function and how they can be manipulated in cancer. Her work focuses on identifying novel ways to manipulate Hsp70 function by either inhibiting specific “helper” co-chaperone proteins such as HDJ2 or chaperone post translational modifications (PTMs). She has demonstrated that the ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) complex, a key enzyme in DNA replication, requires the Hsp70 co-chaperone HDJ2 for activity. Furthermore, inhibition of HDJ2 using a small molecule inhibitor sensitizes cancer cells to RNR inhibitors such as hydroxyurea and triapine. She has identified novel synergistic anticancer drug combinations with HDJ2 inhibition using chemogenomic screens with the NIH Approved Oncology drug collection. These results confirm that HDJ2 is a hub for anticancer drug resistance and that HDJ2 inhibition is a potent strategy to sensitize cancer cells to current and future therapeutics. The large change in drug efficacy linked to HDJ2 suggests a personalized medicine approach where tumor HDJ2 status may be used to optimize therapeutic strategy.