Endocrinology & Metabolic Syndrome
Open Access

Kavita Shah

Biography

Dr. Kavita Shah received her Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in the area of synthetic organic chemistry. She did her postdoctoral research at Princeton University, where she was involved in the development of a chemical genetic approach for the identification of direct substrates of kinases. Subsequently, she was a Group Leader at Genomics Institute of Novartis Research Foundation, San Diego from 1999 to 2004. In 2004, Dr. Shah joined Purdue
University, where she is a Walther Associate Professor. Dr. Shah is an Editor of Current, Protocols in Chemical Biology.

Research Interest

Our research is focused on dissecting the roles of kinases and G Proteins in cancer and neurodegeneration using chemical and genetic approaches. We have recently developed a chemical genetic approach for specific activation or inhibition of engineered G proteins using orthogonal small molecules. Another research area in my laboratory focuses on Aurora A kinase, which is overexpressed in several types of cancers. We have identified several oncogenic targets of Aurora A kinase in breast, prostate and ovarian cancer cells. The goal is validate these targets for developing targeted therapies, and diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer
progression. We are also interested in elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer′s Disease.