Soumen Bera, Ph.D
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology
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About
Dr. Bera’s research focuses on cancer metabolism and therapeutic resistance, with a primary emphasis on prostate cancer. His work investigates how oncogenic transcription factors drive metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells and how these metabolic vulnerabilities can be exploited to overcome resistance to conventional therapies using small molecule compounds. A second major area of interest is the role of selenoproteins in the bioenergetics of prostate and breast cancers, including their post-transcriptional regulation and implications for cancer progression. Dr. Bera also studies antioxidant gene polymorphisms and their impact on reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling, mitochondrial function, and cancer risk. Additional ongoing research applies CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to examine how genetic variants in arsenic metabolic enzymes contribute to arsenic toxicity in human populations.
Education
Ph.D. (Biochemistry), 2009 – Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science / Jadavpur University, India
M.Sc. (Biotechnology), 2003 – Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India
B.Sc. (Zoology), 2001 – University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Post-Graduate Training:
Residency
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Pathology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA (2011–2013)
Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA (2009–2011)