Ajay Kumar Sharma Lab

Publications

Research Impact

ORCID: 0000-0003-1361-6923

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Total Publications: 10+ peer-reviewed articles

Research Areas: Radiopharmaceutical Development, PET Imaging, Cancer Theranostics, Medicinal Chemistry

Original Research Articles

2025

  1. Sharma, A. K., Gupta, K., Mishra, A., Lofland, G., Chen, S. Y., Armstrong, T. M., Zheng, L., Gabrielson, E., Jaffee, E. M., Nimmagadda, S. (2025). "An EphA2-targeted alpha particle theranostic for enhancing PDAC treatment." Theranostics, 15, 4229-4246.

2024

  1. Sharma, A. K., Gupta, K., Mishra, A., Lofland, G., Marsh, I., Kumar, D., Ghiaur, G., Imus, P., Hobbs, R. F., Gocke, C. B., Nimmagadda, S. (2024). "CD38-Specific Gallium-68 Labeled Peptide Radiotracer Enables Pharmacodynamic Monitoring in Multiple Myeloma with PET." Advanced Science, 11, 2308617.
  2. Dewan, A., Jain, C., Das, M., Tripathi, A., Sharma, A. K., Singh, H., Malhotra, N., Seshasayee, A. S. N., Chakrapani, H., Singh, A. (2024). "Intracellular peroxynitrite perturbs redox balance, bioenergetics, and Fe–S cluster homeostasis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis." Redox Biology, 75, 103285.
  3. Mishra, A., Sharma, A. K., Gupta, K., Banka, D. R., Johnson, B. A., Hoffman-Censits, J., Huang, P., McConkey, D. J., Nimmagadda, S. (2024). "Nectin-4 PET for optimizing Enfortumab Vedotin dose-response in urothelial carcinoma." bioRxiv 2024.12.25.630315. [DOI]

2023

  1. Mishra, A., Kumar, D., Gupta, K., Lofland, G., Sharma, A. K., Banka, D. S., Hobbs, R. F., Dannals, R. F., Rowe, S. P., Gabrielson, E., Nimmagadda, S. (2023). "Gallium-68–labeled Peptide PET Quantifies Tumor Exposure of PD-L1 Therapeutics." Clinical Cancer Research, 29(3), 581–591.
  2. Mishra, A., Gupta, K., Kumar, D., Lofland, G., Sharma, A. K., Solnes, L. B., Rowe, S. P., Forde, P. M., Pomper, M. G., Gabrielson, E. W., Nimmagadda, S. (2023). "Non-Invasive PD-L1 Quantification Using [18F]DK222-PET Imaging in Cancer Immunotherapy." Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 11(10), e007535.

2019

  1. Kelkar, D. S., Ravikumar, G., Mehendale, N., Singh, S., Joshi, A., Sharma, A. K., Mhetre, A., Rajendran, A., Chakrapani, H., Kamat, S. S. (2019). "A Chemical–genetic Screen Identifies ABHD12 as an Oxidized-Phosphatidylserine Lipase." Nature Chemical Biology, 15(2), 169–178.
  2. Sharma, A. K., Singh, H., Chakrapani, H. (2019). "Photocontrolled Endogenous Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Generation." Chemical Communications, 55(36), 5259-5262.

2018

  1. Kumari, P., Kulkarni, A., Sharma, A. K., Chakrapani, H. (2018). "Visible-Light Controlled Release of a Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic for Antimicrobial Photopharmacology." ACS Omega, 3(2), 2155–2160.
  2. Kulkarni, A., Sharma, A. K., Chakrapani, H. (2018). "Redox-Guided Small Molecule Antimycobacterials." IUBMB Life, 70(9), 826–835.

2017

  1. Sharma, A. K., Nair, M., Chauhan, P., Gupta, K., Saini, D. K., Chakrapani, H. (2017). "Visible-Light-Triggered Uncaging of Carbonyl Sulfide for Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) Release." Organic Letters, 19(18), 4822–4825.

Manuscripts in Preparation

  • Sharma, A. K., Singh, H., Chakrapani, H. "Visible Light Stimulated Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Generation." In preparation.
  • Sharma, A. K., Aswin, P. K., Chakrapani, H. "Green Light Activated Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) Generation." In preparation.

Patents

  • December 30, 2024: Provisional patent application about "18F-Fluorine incorporation strategy to generate 18F-radiometal theranostic pairs" (JHU Reference: D18426)

Selected Conference Presentations

Oral/Podium Presentations

  • March 28, 2025: "Nectin-4 PET to Predict Enfortumab Vedotin (EV) Efficacy in Preclinical Bladder Cancer" - Research in Progress meeting, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
  • November 14, 2023: "Non-Invasive Detection of Multiple Myeloma Using Ga-68 Labelled CD38 Targeting Peptide" - Radiology Research Day 2023 (Highest scored abstract)
  • April 26, 2023: "Non-Invasive Detection of Multiple Myeloma Using Ga-68 Labelled CD38 Targeting Peptide" - Research in Progress meeting, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
  • March 23, 2022: "EPhA2 Targeted Peptide-Based Ga-68 Labelled PET Tracer for Pancreatic Tumor Imaging" - Research in Progress meeting, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Poster Presentations

  • April 25-30, 2025: "Enhancing urothelial carcinoma treatment with nectin-4-PET: A predictor of enfortumab vedotin efficacy" - AACR Annual Meeting 2025, Chicago, IL
  • April 09, 2025: "Development and Evaluation of a Peptide-Based CD38 Radiotheranostic for Multiple Myeloma" - 32nd SKCCC Trainee Research Day 2025
  • September 19, 2024: "EphA2 targeting peptide-based radiotheranostic for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC)" - 3rd annual Alavi and Bradley Symposium 2024
  • April 5-10, 2024: "Evaluation of CD38 pharmacodynamics in multiple myeloma using PET with a Ga-68 labelled peptide" - AACR Annual Meeting 2024, San Diego, CA
  • April 8-13, 2022: "Imaging pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using an EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase binding 68Ga-labeled peptide radiotracer" - AACR Annual Meeting 2022, New Orleans, LA (Scholar-in-Training Award)

Awards and Recognition

  • April 2025: Recognized as a rising star in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging through SNMMI's Ones to Watch program
  • November 2023: Highest scored abstract – JHU Radiology Research Day for "Non-Invasive Detection of Multiple Myeloma Using Ga-68 Labelled CD38 Targeting Peptide"
  • April 2022: Scholar-in-Training Award – AACR annual meeting 2022
  • April 2021: Postdoctoral fellow of the month, Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University
  • May 2019: Travel award provided by IISER Pune to attend the Indo-Weizmann joint meeting-2019
  • July 2014-August 2019: Full Ph.D. Fellowship, provided by Council of Scientific Research of India (CSIR)
  • April 2014: All India 45th Rank in national eligibility test (NET)-2013, conducted by CSIR-UGC, India
  • April 2014: All India Rank 470th in Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE)- 2014
  • June 2012: 2nd Rank in central university common entrance test-2012, conducted by central universities, India

Current Funding

Extramural Funding

  • 12/01/24-11/30/26: "Development of EphA2-Targeted Molecular Radiotheranostics for Lung Neuroendocrine Tumors" - ERF/NETRF Nuclear Medicine Pilot Research Grant ($100,000) - Role: PI
  • 01/01/24-12/31/24: "Creation of an EphA2-binding radiotherapeutic for targeting ovarian cancer" - HERA Ovarian cancer foundation: Outside-the-box-1 seed grant ($30,000) - Role: PI

Intramural Funding

  • 07/01/24-06/30/25: "Developing Albumin-Bound EphA2-Targeted Molecular Radiotherapeutics for Treatment of Colorectal Cancer" - Colorectal Cancer Research Center of Excellence Pilot Award by Johns Hopkins ($50,000) - Role: PI

Professional Activities

Journal Peer Review Activities

Active reviewer for multiple prestigious journals including:

  • Nature Communications
  • European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
  • ACS Omega
  • Bioorganic Chemistry
  • Frontiers in Immunology
  • Cancer Imaging
  • Current Oncology
  • And many others (30+ reviews completed since 2023)

Conference Review Activities

  • May 2025-Present: Reviewer for abstracts of World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC)-2025
  • April 2024-September 2024: Reviewer for abstracts of World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC)-2024

Professional Society Memberships

  • March 2025-Present: Member of American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • January 2025-Present: Member of Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI)
  • February 2022-Present: Associate member of American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)