Hirendranath Banerjee, Ph.D.

Department of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences,

Elizabeth City State University

Novel nanotechnologies can complement and augment existing genomic and proteomic techniques employed to analyze variations across different tumor types, thus offering the potential to distinguish between normal and malignant cells. Sensitive biosensors constructed of nanoscale components (e.g., nanocantilevers, nanowires, and nanochannels) can recognize genetic and molecular events and have reporting capabilities, thereby offering the potential to detect rare molecular signals associated with malignancy.  Such signals may then be collected for analysis by nanoscale harvesters that selectively isolate cancer-related molecules from tissues. Another area with near-term potential for early detection of cancer is the identification of mutations and genomic instability in situ.

Dr. H. Banerjee is an assistant professor at the department of biological sciences and

pharmaceutical sciences at Elizabeth City State University under the University of North Carolina system and a honorary scientist at Center for Biophysical Sciences and

Engineering at University of Alabama at Birmingham.  Dr. Banterer’s laboratory is involved in the biomarker discovery and therapeutic strategies of the brain cancer Glioblastoma multiforme and has published several papers on this topic.  He is also involved with research on structural biology of H.pylori proteins and is currently in the process of applying for a US patent on diagnosis of H.pylori carcinogenic strains.  Dr. Banerjee has received several grants from Federal agencies like NIH and NASA and nurtured and guided both undergraduate and graduate students many of whom are working in academia and industry.