Aejaz Sayeed, PhD

Associate Professor 

Ph: 215-589-6350
Email: aejaz.sayeed@bblumberg.org 

Biography

Appointment at Blumberg: Associate Professor

Other appointments: Adjunct Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton PA

Dr. Aejaz is a molecular cell biologist with a particular focus on novel cancer biomarkers. His research interests are focused on the mechanisms of cancer progression and development of refractory states with a special emphasis on cellular signaling, metabolism, targeted therapeutics and microvesicles.

Before joining Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Dr. Aejaz Sayeed worked as a research faculty for more than six years in the Department of Cancer Biology at Thomas Jefferson University where he studied the molecular crosstalk between β1 integrins and insulin-like growth factor receptor. He received an American Cancer Society/IRG award for this work. Using in vivo conditional transgenic model systems of prostate cancer, Dr. Aejaz investigated underlying molecular mechanisms of radiation resistance and also dissected the role of exosomes in prostate cancer progression. At Thomas Jefferson University he taught courses on cancer signaling and metabolism in the graduate program of biochemistry and molecular Biology.

Dr. Aejaz worked as a research associate scientist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where he specialized in creating a battery of primary breast cancer cell lines representing all histologic grades of the disease and investigated genetic signatures associated with cancer aggressiveness in an effort to discover and characterize novel molecular markers of the aggressive disease. While working in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute Dr. Aejaz conducted a pioneering study in establishing the molecular interaction between tumor suppressor p53 and estrogen receptor in breast cancer which explained the compromised tumor suppression in p53 wild type tumors. Dr. Aejaz Sayeed received his Ph.D. from the Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh and conducted his post doctoral studies in cancer biology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Overall, Dr. Aejaz has made conceptual advances in connecting signaling to gene expression to aggressive phenotypes, and paved the way for new directions in biomedical research.

Education Interest:

Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Immunology.

Research Interests:

Cancer biology and metabolism, Primary culture model systems of cancer, novel tumor markers, exosomes, radiation resistance, Hormone receptors, Insulin-like growth factor axis, cancer health disparity

Publications:

Sayeed A, Lu H, Liu Q, Deming Li D, Duffy A, McCue P, Dicker AP, Davis RJ, Gabrilovich D, Rodeck U, Alteiri DC and Languino LR. β1 Integrins- and JNK-dependent tumor growth upon hypofractionated radiation Priority article, Oncotarget 2016, July 11.PMID: 27438371

Anindita Dutta, Jing Li, Carmine Fedele, Aejaz Sayeed, Amrita Singh, Shelia M. Violette, Thomas D. Manes and Lucia R Languino. αvβ6 Integrin Is Required for TGFβ1-Mediated Matrix Metalloproteinase 2 Expression. Biochem J. (2015) Jan 6. PMID: 25558779.

Sayeed, A., Fedele, C., Trerotola, M., Languino, L.R. IGF-IR Promotes Prostate Cancer Growth By Stabilizing a5b1 Integrin Protein Levels. PlosOne, (2013). e.76513. PMCID: PMC3793919

Sayeed A, Luciani G, Meng Z, Ling E and Dairkee SH. BST2 expression is a characteristic of high grade breast cancer and leads to endocrine resistance regardless of estrogen receptor status. PLoSOne, (2013) 8(6), e67191. PMCID: PMC3688682

Sayeed, A., Goel, H.,Breen, M., Zarif, M.J., Garlick, D.S., Leav, I., Davis, R.J., FitzGerald, T.J., Morrione, A., Liu, Q., Dicker, A., Altieri, D.C., and Languino, L.R. β1 integrins mediate resistance to ionizing radiation in vivo by inhibiting JNK. J. Cell Physiol., (2013), 228(7):1601- 1609. PMCID: PMC3749928.

Sayeed, A., Alam, N., Trerotola, M., and Languino, L.R. Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Stimulation of Androgen Receptor Activity Requires 1A Integrins. J. Cell Physiol., 227:751-758 (2012). PMCID: PMC3195902

Saxena, P., Trerotola, M., Wang, T., Li, J., Sayeed, A., VanOudenhove, J., Adams, D.S., FitzGerald, T.J., Altieri, D.C., and Languino, L.R. PSA is required for androgen receptor expression in prostate cancer cells. The Prostate, 72:769-776 (2012). PMCID: PMC3404455

Goodson W, Luciani G, Sayeed A, Jafee I, Moore DH and Dairkee SH. Minimum concentrations of bisphenol-A(BPA) and methyl paraben (MP) induce pro survival functional changes in non malignant human breast epithelial cells. Carcinogenesis, 32(11): 1724-33, 2011.PMCID: PMC3204351

Gloria Luciani, Junhee Seok, Aejaz Sayeed, Stacey Champion, William H Goodson, Stefanie S Jeffrey, Wenzhong Xiao, Michael Mindrinos, Ronald W Davis and Dairkee SH. Distinctive responsiveness to stromal signaling accompanies histologic grade programming of cancer cells. PLoSOne: (2011) 6(5), e20016. PMCID: PMC3098270

Sayeed A, Ling E, Meng Z, Luciani G and Dairkee SH. Negative regulation of UCP2 by TGFβ signaling characterizes low and intermediate-grade primary breast cancer. Cell Death and Disease, Jul 15;1:e53, 2010 .PMCID: PMC3032562

Shanaz Dairkee, Aejaz Sayeed, Gloria Luciani, Stacey Champion, Zenhang Meng, Lakshmi R Jakula, Heidi Feiler, Joe W. Gray, and Dan H. Moore. Immutable functional attributes of histologic grade revealed by context-independent gene expression in primary breast cancer cells. Cancer Research, 69(19), 7826-7834 (2009). PMCID: PMC2757757

Shanaz H. Dairkee, Junhee Seok, Stacey Champion, Aejaz Sayeed, Michael Mindrinos, Ronald W Davis and William H Goodson. Bisphenol A induces a profile of tumor aggressiveness in high risk cells of breast cancer patients. Cancer Research, 68(7), 2076-2080 (2008). PMID: 18381411

Aejaz Sayeed, Santi Konduri, Wensheng Liu, Sanjay Bansal, and Gokul Das. Estrogen Receptor alpha alleviates p53-mediated transcriptional repression: Implications for the regulation of Apoptosis. Cancer Research, 67(16), 7746-7755 (2007). PMID: 17699779

Dairkee SH, Nicolau M, Aejaz Sayeed, Champion S, Ji Y, Moore DH, Yong B, Meng Z, Jeffrey SS,. Oxidative stress pathways highlighted in tumor cell immortalization; Association with breast cancer outcome. Oncogene, 26(43):6269-6279 (2007). PMID: 17471242

Zheng Li, Zhen Hang Meng, Aejaz Sayeed, Refaat Shalaby, Britt-Marie Ljung and Shanaz H. Dairkee. Genome –wide allelotyping of a new in-vitro model system reveals early events in breast cancer progression. Cancer Research, 62(20): 5980-5987, 2002. PMID:12384566

Aejaz Sayeed, H.Vohra, Anu Gupta and N.K.Ganguly. Apoptosis and its molecular machinery. Current Science, 80(3): 349-360, 200