Employees - Scientific Research Team
AlfaGene's Research team is headed by Dr. Asit Panja - the individual who originally invented the procedure for isolation, long term culturing, and establishment of adult stem cell lines from gastrointestinal (GI) tissues, as well as, the processes for deriving primary non-transformed epithelial cell lines from these established adult stem cell lines. The rest of the research team has extensive experience with many aspects of biomedical research, including: stem cells, tissue culture, cellular and genetic manipulation, recombinant protein production and purification, assay development... The core Research Team posses over a hundred and fifty years of experience, published over a hundred scientific articles papers, and authored more than 30 patents.
Scientific Research Team
Asit Panja (CSO)
Ansamma Joseph (Consultant)
Asit Panja
CSO
MD
Dr. Panja is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and founder of AlfaGene Bioscience, Inc. Dr. Panja has worked as a visiting scientist at the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, Assistant Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine NY, Director of GI research at Winthrop University Hospital and Stony Brook School of Medicine NY, Associate Professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School NJ, and Professor at Rutgers University NJ. Dr. Panja also founded the biomedical research company Universal BioMedical Resources, Inc. (UBMRI) in 1999. He possesses 20 years of experience in the gastrointestinal (GI) field.
Experience:
2007-Present Chief Scientific Officer and Founder
AlfaGene Bioscience, Inc.
Somerset, NJ
2007 Visiting Research Professor
Nanotechnology Laboratory
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ
2004-Present Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS)
New Brunswick, NJ
2000-2002 Associate Professor of Research Medicine
SUNY- Stony Brook School of Medicine
Stony Brook, NY
1998-2002 Director of Gastrointestinal Research
Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
Winthrop-University Hospital
Mineola, Long Island, NY
1998–2000 Assistant Professor of Medicine
SUNY- Stony Brook School of Medicine
Stony Brook, NY
1994–1998 Assistant Professor of Medicine
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
1993-1994 Research Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
1991-1993 Instructor of Medicine
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
1990-1991 Visiting Scientist
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
1988-1989 Visiting Scientist
UMDNJ-RWJMS
New Brunswick, NJ
1987-1988 Visiting Scientist
Karolinska Hospital
Stockholm, Sweden
1986-1987 Medical Internship
Sir Gangaram Hospital
New Dehli, India
Education:
Dr. Panja obtained his MD from the Medical Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1985.
Honors and Awards:
1996-2000 “First Award” Grant from The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. “Functional consequences of cytokine/receptor interactions in the intestinal epithelium”.
1998-1999 WUH Intramural Grant: “Cytokine Profile of Intestinal Epithelial Cells: Role in IBD Pathophysiology”.
1998 Recipient of Travel Award from The American Association of Immunologists (to present at the 10th International Congress of Immunology).
1994-1996 “Career Development Award” from Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA): “Intestine Epithelial cells: Producers and targets of proinflammatory cytokines”.
1995 Recipient of CCFA’s annual IBD Young Investigator Award.
1995 Recipient of Travel award from Society for Mucosal Immunology (to present at the 8th International Congress of Mucosal Immunology).
1991-1994 Kennedy Leigh Charitable Trust Award: “Major Histocompatibility class II regulation in IBD”.
Patents:
2008 Drug Discovery Methods involving a Preclinical in vitro isolated Gastrointestinal Epithelial Stem Cell – like Progenitor Cell System. U S provisional patent application 61/047296
Reviewer:
Gastroenterology, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Clinical Immunology, Cellular Immunology, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, American Journal of Physiology, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Selected Publications (out of 32):
1. Smedfors B, E Theordorsson, A. Aly, A Musat, A Panja, C Johansson. 1989. HCl-induced duodenal HCO3-secretion is associated with concentration related release of local prostaglandin E2, vasoactive intestinal peptide, neurokinin A and substance P in the rat. European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 1 (3):193-199.
2. Salomon P, A Pizzimenti, A Panja, A Reisman, L Mayer. 1990. The expression and regulation of HLA-DR and HLA-DP in normal and inflammatory bowel disease peripheral blood monocytes and intestinal epithelial cells. Autoimmunity, 9:141-149
3. Roberts A, A Panja, and EC Ebert. 1991. Intraepithelial lymphocytes: Immunomodulation and receptor binding of vasoactive intestinal peptide. Digestive Disease and Sciences, (3):341-346
4. Theodorsson E, B. smedfors, P. Hellstrom, O. Soder, A, Aly, A Musat, A. Panja and C. Johansson 1991. Aspects on the role of tachykinins and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in control of secretion, motility and blood flow in the gut. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; 298: 233-40.
5. Mayer L, A. Panja, Y. Li, 1991. Antigen recognition in the GI tract: Death to the dogma, Immunologic Research 10:356-359
6. Mayer L, A. Panja, Y. Li, E. Siden, F. Gerardi, N. Chandswang. 1992. Unique features of antigen presentation in the intestine. Annals of
7. Panja. A, R. Blumberg, S. P. Balk, and L. Mayer. 1993. CD1d in the epithelial cell is recognized by T cells. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 178(3):1115-1119
8. Sperber K, H. Quraishi, T. Kalb, A. Panja, V. Stecher, L. Mayer. 1993. Selective Regulation of Cytokine Secretion by Hydroxychloroquine: Inhibition of IL-1 and IL-6 by Moncytes and T Cells. Journal of Rheumatology. 20(5): 803-808
9. Eckman L, H. C. Jung, C. Schurer-Maly, A. Panja, E. Morzycka-Wroblewska, and M. Kagnoff. 1993. Differential cytokine expression by human intestinal epithelial cells: regulated expression of interleukin-8. Gastroenterology. 105: 1689-1697.
10. Panja A, A. Barone and L. Mayer. 1994. Stimulation of lamina propria lymphocytes by intestinal epithelial cells: Evidence for recognition of nonclassical restriction element. Journal of Experimental Medicine 179 (3): 943-950.
11. Shalon L, B. Gulwani - Akolkar, SE. Fisher, P. N. Akolkar, A. Panja, L. Mayer, and J. Silver. 1994. An altered TCR repertoire in Crohn's Disease. Autoimmunity 17: 301-307.