Swayam Prabha
Associate Professor, Starting in July 2024
Department of Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutics Faculty
Email: swayam.prabha0001@temple.edu
Accepting Students to Lab: Yes
Education
- PhD in Pharmaceutics and Drug Design, University of Nebraska Medical Center
- MBA in Healthcare Management, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
- MS in Pharmaceutics, Banaras Hindu University, India
Research Interests:
- Translational research
- Ovarian cancer
- Targeted drug delivery
- Cell based therapies
- Nanoengineered stem cells therapeutics
Biography
After completing doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Prabha joined the pharmaceutical industry and was involved in the development of clinical formulations,. Her current efforts are focused on developing novel drug/gene delivery approaches to fulfill unmet therapeutic needs. Her tenure in the pharmaceutical industry and involvement in the development of clinical formulations, several of which have been successfully approved by the FDA, have enabled a deeper understanding of what it takes to translate ideas and concepts from laboratory into a clinical drug product. She is involved in designing effective cell-based therapies with fewer side effects for lung and ovarian cancers, both diseases with poor survival rates and in urgent need of novel therapeutic approaches. The overall goal of the lab is to improve mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) tumor homing and to fully understand the impact of anticancer drug loading on MSC biology. Current studies show that MSCs nanoengineered to load paclitaxel actively migrate to lung tumors (Patent: 11684638; Targeted delivery system, system components, and methods), where they are retained for several days, and facilitate targeted delivery of the payload and inhibition of tumor growth. She has mentored 9 graduate students (seven PhD and two MS), 12 postdoctoral fellows, 2 research associates, 4 undergraduate students, several high school students and have served on the advisory committees for other graduate students. She currently mentor two postdoctoral fellows and is on the advisory committee of a PhD student. All her previous trainees have continued successful biomedical science careers in academia and industry. She has been a principal investigator or co-investigator for numerous research awards, including federal (e.g., NIH, NCI/SAIC, DOD), national (American Cancer Society, Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance), industrial (Supernus, BRTI) and intramural funding sources.