Dr. Nitisha Shrivastava obtained her master’s in Microbiology from India with recognition as a University topper (Gold medalist). She obtained her Ph. D in Radiation Biology from University of Delhi and Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (DRDO) Delhi, India.

Dr. Shrivastava’s research is focused primarily on understanding the role of dormancy and senescence in cancer utilizing the 2D/3D in vitro and animal models; and conditionally reprogrammed patient samples. Her current interest lies in understanding any overlapping similarities between dormancy and senescence and to exploit it’s therapeutic vulnerabilities to halt metastatic progression and tumor relapse (https://www.sosa-lab.com/). Her present work is focused in head and neck carcinomas.

Over the last few years her work has focused on establishing the role of senescence to synergize radiation response and limit tumorigenesis in various, but not limited to, head and neck, breast cancer models etc. Dr. Shrivastava’s expertise lies in strategizing combinatorial therapies and comprehensively exploring key mechanisms and signaling pathways to intervene and enhance treatment responses. In recent years her work focused on utilizing radiation and ultrasound modalities in immortalized cell lines; organoids and animal models to understand and exploit the interplay between senescence and adaptive immune system with key focus on dendritic cells.

Dr. Shrivastava’s potential as a collaborative research player has been appreciated in progressing institutes objective (https://einsteinmed.edu/news/4786/montefiore-einstein-cancer-center-researchers-receive-price-family-foundation-health-equity-research-awards/). Dr. Shrivastava has several publications in peer reviewed journals and international presentations underscoring her commitment to advancing the understanding of cancer mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Her work has also been recognized on various international and national forums since the beginning of her career, marking her excellence in the field. To name a few, Dr. Shrivastava has been awarded with the highly competitive and prestigious Scholar-in-training-Award by the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), USA to recognize her as an outstanding young investigator. She has been winner of the proffered paper session in Head and Neck Society, NY, USA; awarded as an outstanding speaker for oral presentation in AECOM, NY, USA among several others.

Dr. Shrivastava has mentored many juniors, and several rotation graduates and MD/PhD students in her tenure establishing her role of a successful team player and collaborative lab member as evidenced with her publications as second and third author etc. In addition, Dr. Shrivastava is an invited reviewer for many esteemed journals and publication houses and has also actively participated in non-academic forums and activities.

Dr. Shrivastava thrives to continue exploring potential treatment strategies circumventing tumor progression and metastatic relapse and identify signaling pathways and mechanisms.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=T2cfrmkAAAAJ

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nitisha-Shrivastava

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=57214621968

1. Thomas J. Ow, Vikas Mehta, Daniel Li, Carlos Thomas, Nitisha Shrivastava, Nicole Kawachi, Adam J. Gersten, Jing Zhu, Bradley A. Schiff, Richard V. Smith, Gregory Rosenblatt, Stelby Augustine, Michael B. Prystowsky, Shanye Yin, Evripidis Gavathiotis, Chandan Guha. 2024. Characterization of a diverse set of conditionally reprogrammed head and neck cancer cell cultures. Laryngoscope. Accepted.

2. Nitisha Shrivastava, Claudia G. Chavez, Daniel Li, Vikas Mehta, Carlos Thomas, Cory D. Fulcher, Nicole Kawachi, Danielle M Bottalico, Michael B. Prystowsky, Indranil Basu, Chandan Guha, Thomas J. Ow. 2023. CDK4/6 Inhibition Induces Senescence and Enhances Radiation Response by Disabling DNA Damage Repair in Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel). 15(7):2005.

3. Daniel Li#, Carlos Thomas#, Nitisha Shrivastava, Adam Gersten, Nicholas Gadsden, Nicolas F. Schlecht, Nicole Kawachi, Bradley A. Schiff, Richard V. Smith, Gregory Rosenblatt, Stelby Augustine, Evripidis Gavathiotis, Robert Burk, Michael B. Prystowsky, Chandan Guha, Vikas Mehta, Thomas J Ow. 2022. Establishment of a diverse head and neck squamous cancer cell bank using conditional reprogramming culture methods. Journal of Medical Virology. 95(2): e28388. #: equal contribution.

4. Carolina Rodriguez-Tirado, Nupura Kale, Maria J. Carlini, Nitisha Shrivastava, Alcina A.Bassem D. Khalil, Jose Javier Bravo-Cordero, Yan Hong, Melissa Alexander, Jiayi Ji, Fariba Behbod, Maria Soledad Sosa. 2022. NR2F1 is a barrier to dissemination of early stage breast cancer cells. Cancer Research. 82(12): 2313-2326.

5. Nicholas Gadsden, Cory D. Fulcher, Daniel Li, Nitisha Shrivastava, Carlos Thomas, Jeffrey E. Segall, Michael B. Prystowsky, Nicolas F. Schlecht, Evripidis Gavathiotis. 2020. Palbociclib renders human papilloma virus negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma vulnerable to the senolytic agent navitoclax. Molecular Cancer Research. 19(5): 862-873.

6. Maria Jose Carlini, Nitisha Shrivastava, Maria Soledad Sosa. 2018. Epigenetic and Pluripotency aspects of disseminated cancer cells during minimal residual disease. Biological mechanism of minimal residual disease and systemic cancer. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.1100: 1-18.

7. Nitisha Shrivastava, Jayadev Joshi, Neeta Sehgal, Jharna Ray, Indracanti Prem Kumar. 2017. Prediction of cyclooxygenase-2 as the target for novel radioprotector scopolamine methyl bromide: An in silico study. Informatics in Medicine unlocked. 9: 18-25.

8. Jayadev Joshi, Manali Dimri, Subhajit Ghosh, Nitisha Shrivastava, Rina Chakraborti, Neeta Sehgal, Jharna Ray, Indracanti Prem Kumar. 2015. Ligand and structure based models for the identification of beta 2 adrenergic receptor antagonists.Accepted. Current Computer Aided Drug Design. 11(3): 222-236.

9. Manali Dimri, Jayadev Joshi, Nitisha Shrivastava, Subhajit Ghosh, Rina Chakraborti, Indracanti Prem Kumar. 2015. Prilocaine hydrochloride protects zebrafish from lethal effects of ionizing radiation: role of hematopoietic cell expansion. Tokai Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine.40(1): 8-15.

10. Jayadev Joshi, Tapan Kumar Barik, Nitisha Shrivastava, Manali Dimri, Subhajit Ghosh, Rahul Shubhra Mandal, Srinivasan Ramachandran, Indracanti Prem Kumar. 2013. Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) - a potential target for screening of small molecules as radiation countermeasure agents: An in-silico study. Current Computer Aided Drug Design. 9(1): 35-45.

11.Joseph Babu, Nitisha Shrivastava, Pramod W. Ramteke. 2012. Extracellular cold-active lipase of Microbacterium luteolum isolated from Gangotri glacier, western Himalaya: Isolation, partial purification and characterization. Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. 10(1): 137-144.

12. Joseph Babu, W. Ramteke Pramod, Thomas George, Nitisha Shrivastava. 2007.Standard Review: Cold active microbial lipases: A versatile tool for industrial applications. Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 2(2): 039-048.

Manuscript in Preparation

1. Nitisha Shrivastava, Cory Fulcher, Daniel Li, Carlos Thomas, Michael B. Prystowsky, Thomas J. Ow. FOXM1 downregulation enhances radiation sensitivity in Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) negative oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). 2024.