Amol Suryawanshi, DVM, MS, PhD

Education

PhD, University of Tennessee, 2011
MVSc, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, UP, Animal Biochemistry
DVM, Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai, India, 2005

Biography

Dr. Suryawanshi received his DVM in 2005 from Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai, India. He was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship in 2005 to pursue Master of Veterinary Sciences (M.V.Sc.) in Animal Biochemistry from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, UP. Dr. Suryawanshi earned his Ph.D. degree in 2011 with the research focus on Viral Immunopathology in Comparative & Experimental Medicine graduate program from Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He received post-doctoral training (2011-2015) in microbial pathogenesis, autoimmunity and immune-oncology at Tufts University School of Medicine and at Cancer Immunotherapy Center, Augusta University. In 2015, Dr. Suryawanshi joined the AbbVie Inc., as Senior Scientist, where he worked on the development of an Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs)-based novel immunotherapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and other autoimmune disease indications. In April 2018, Dr. Suryawanshi joined the Department of Pathobiology as an Assistant Professor of Immunology.

Research Interests

Immuno-oncology: This research focuses on the studying the role of tumor micro-environment and the activation of immuno-regulatory signaling pathways in tumor infiltrating immune cells (dendritic cells, macrophages and T cells), which contributes to the evasion of host anti-tumor immune responses. The goal of this research is to identify the novel immuno-regulatory pathway in both tumor cells and tumor infiltrating immune cells that play a critical role in the suppression of anti-tumor immunity. Dr. Suryawanshi’s lab is interested in using genomic approaches, cellular immunology, clinical data samples, conditional knock-out mice and mouse syngenic tumor models. This information will be further utilized to target various components of signaling mechanisms to design and develop novel cancer immunotherapies.

Immuno-pathology: An aberrant activation of host innate and adaptive immune responses to foreign and self-antigens leads to the development of several chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. One of Dr. Suryawanshi’s lab research focus is to identify molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways in innate (Dendritic cells & Macrophages) and adaptive (CD8 and CD4 T cell subsets- Th1, Th17 & Treg) immune cells, which contributes to the induction and maintenance of chronic inflammation. These studies will be carried out using various knock-out/conditional knock-out mice in different mouse models of autoimmunity.

Infectious diseases: Viral Immunity & Immunopathology: The goal of this research is to study the immune-regulatory signaling mechanisms in antigen presenting cells, which a central role in the induction of robust effector CD4 and CD8 T cell-mediated immunity. These studies will be performed using mouse models of HSV and Influenza virus infection in various knock-out/conditional knock-out mice strains. Data obtained from these studies will be further utilized to design and develop novel immunotherapies targeting antigen presenting cells to promote vaccine immunity and regulate chronic infection-induced immunopathology.

Immunotherapy: This is a multi-disciplinary collaborative research work with the ultimate goal of developing novel immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmunity and chronic inflammatory disease indications. The graduate students and post-doctoral fellows will be encouraged to translate the information obtained in basic research for the development of novel immunotherapies. This work will focus on utilizing genomic, biologics, small molecule and chemical or combination of these approaches to develop novel therapeutics.

Prospective Candidates
There are opportunities for students (undergraduate & graduate) and post-doctoral candidates in my group. Please contact me if you are interested.

Academic Areas

VBMS7500 – Cellular & Molecular Immunology

Publications and Links

Ranganathan P, Shanmugam A, Swafford D, Suryawanshi A, Bhattacharjee P, Hussein MS, Koni PA, Prasad PD, Kurago ZB, Thangaraju M, Ganapathy V and Manicassamy S GPR81, a Cell-Surface Receptor for Lactate, Regulates Intestinal Homeostasis and Protects Mice from Experimental Colitis. The Journal of Immunology. 200 (5), 1781-1789. 2018.

Suryawanshi A, Tadagavadi RK, Swafford D and Manicassamy S. Modulation of inflammatory responses by Wnt/β-catenin signaling in dendritic cells: A novel immunotherapy target for auto-immunity and cancer. Frontiers in Immunology. 7:460. Doi:10.3389/fimmu.2060.00460. 2016.

Suryawanshi A and Manicassamy S. Tumors induce immune tolerance through activation β-catenin/TCF4 signaling in dendritic cells: A novel therapeutic target for cancer immunotherapy. OncoImmunology. 4(12), e1052932. 2016.

Suryawanshi A*, Manoharan I*, Hong Y, Majumdar T, Swafford D, Taketo MM, Manicassamy M, Koni PA, Thangaraju M, Zuoming S and Manicassamy M. Canonical Wnt Signaling in Dendritic Cells Regulates Th1/Th17 Responses and Suppresses Autoimmune Neuroinflammation. Journal of Immunology. 194 (7), 3295-3304. 2015. *Equal Contribution. Selected by reviewers and editors for “In This Issue” section commentary that highlights top 10% papers in the respective field.

Suryawanshi A, Cao Z, Sampson J and Panjwani N. IL-17A-mediated protection against Acanthamoeba Keratitis. Journal of Immunology. 194 (2), 650-663. 2015.

Suryawanshi A, Cao Z, Thitiprasert T, Zaidi TS and Panjwani N. Galectin-1-mediated suppression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced corneal immunopathology. Journal of Immunology. 190 (12): 6397-6409. 2013.

Suryawanshi A, Veiga-Parga T, Reddy PB, Rajasagi NK and Rouse BT. IL-17A differentially regulates corneal VEGF-A and sVEGFR-1 expression and promotes corneal angiogenesis after HSV infection. Journal of Immunology. 188(7): 3434-3446. 2012.

Suryawanshi A, Veiga-Parga T, Rajasagi NK, Reddy PB, Sehrawat S and Rouse BT. Role of IL-17 and Th17 cells in HSV induced corneal immunopathology. Journal of Immunology. 187(4): 1919-1930. 2011. Selected by reviewers and editors for “In This Issue” section commentary that highlights top 10% papers in the respective field.

Suryawanshi A*, Mulik S*, Sharma S, Reddy PB, Sehrawat S and Rouse BT. Ocular neovascularization caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 infection results from breakdown of binding between vascular endothelial growth factor A and its soluble receptor. Journal of Immunology. 186 (6) 3653-3665. 2011. *Equal Contribution.

Veiga-Parga T*, Suryawanshi A* and Rouse BT. Controlling viral immunoinflammatory lesion by modulating aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling. PLoS Pathogens. 7(12): e1002427. 2011.*Equal Contribution.

Naresha S*, Suryawanshi A*, Agarwal M, Singh BP and Joshi P. Mapping the complement C1q binding site in Haemonchus contortus calreticulin. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 166 (1): 42:46. 2009. *Equal contribution.

Kandasamy M, Suryawanshi A, Tundup S, Perez J, Schmolke M, Akira S, Garcia-Sastre G, Manicassamy S and Manicassamy B. RIG-I signaling is critical for efficient polyfunctional T cell responses during influenza virus infection. PLoS Pathogens. 12 (7), e1005754. 2016.

Manoharan I, Suryawanshi A, Hong Y, Swafford D, Shamim A, Manicassamy B, Thangaraju M, Koni P, Mellor AL, Munn DH and Manicassamy S. Homeostatic PPARα signaling limits inflammatory responses to commensal microbiota in the intestine. Journal of Immunology. 196 (11), 4739-4749. 2016.

Hong Y*, Manoharan I*, Suryawanshi A, Majumdar T, Angus-Hill ML, Koni P, Manicassamy B, Mellor AL, Munn DH and Manicassamy S. β-catenin promotes regulatory T-cell responses in tumors by inducing vitamin A metabolism in dendritic cells. Cancer Research. 75(4), 656-663. 2015. *Equal Contribution

Sampson JF, Suryawanshi A, Chen WS, Rabinovich GA and Panjwani N. Galectin-8 promotes regulatory T-cell differentiation by modulating IL-2 and TGF-β signaling. Immunology & Cell Biology. 94, 213-219. 2016.

Hong Y, Manoharan I, Suryawanshi A, Swafford D, Ahmad S, Chinnadurai R, Manicassamy B, He Y, Mellor AL, Munn DH and Manicassamy S. Deletion of LRP5 and LRP6 in dendritic cells enhances anti-tumor immunity. OncoImmunology. 5 (4), e1115941. 2016.

Veiga-Parga T, Suryawanshi A, Mulik S, Gimenez F, Sharma S, Sparwasser T and Rouse BT. On the role of regulatory T cells during viral-induced inflammatory lesion. Journal of Immunology. 189(12): 5924-5933. 2012.

Gimenez F, Suryawanshi A and Rouse BT. Pathogenesis of herpes stromal keratitis- a focus on corneal neovascularization. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research. 33:1-9. 2013.

Rajasagi NK, Suryawanshi A, Sehrawat S, Reddy PB, Mulik S, Hirashima M and Rouse BT. Galectin-1 reduces the severity of herpes simplex virus induced ocular immunopathological lesions. Journal of Immunology. 188(9): 4631-4643. 2012.

Sehrawat S, Suryawanshi A, Hirashima M and Rouse BT. Role of Tim-3/Galectin-9 inhibitory interaction in viral-induced immunopathology: shifting the balance toward regulators. Journal of Immunology. 182 (5): 3191-3201. 2009.

Manoharan I, Hong Y, Suryawanshi A, Angus-Hill ML, Sun Z, Mellor AL, Munn DH, and Manicassamy S. TLR2-Dependent Activation of β-Catenin Pathway in Dendritic Cells Induces Regulatory Responses and Attenuates Autoimmune Inflammation. Journal of Immunology.193 (8), 4203-4213. 2014.

Sharma S, Sundararajan A, Suryawanshi A, Mulik S, Kumar N, Thomas PG, Kuchroo VK, Sangster MY and Rouse BT. T cell immunoglobulin and mucin protein-3 (Tim3)/Galectin-9 interaction regulates influenza A virus-specific humoral and CD8 T-cell responses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (47): 19001-19006. 2011.

PBJ Reddy, Sehrawat S, Suryawanshi A, Rajasagi N, Mulik S and Rouse BT. Influence of Galectin-9/Tim-3 interaction on herpes simplex virus-1 Latency. Journal of Immunology. 187 (11): 5745-5755. 2011.

Rajasagi NK, Reddy PB, Suryawanshi A, Mulik S, Gjorstrup P and Rouse BT. Controlling herpes simplex virus-induced ocular inflammatory lesion with the lipid-derived mediator resolving E1. Journal of Immunology. 186 (3) 1735-1746. 2011.

Sehrawat S, Reddy Pradeep BJ, Rajasagi N, Suryawanshi A, Hirashima M and Rouse BT. Galectin-9/TIM-3 interaction regulates virus-specific primary and memory CD8+ T cell response. PLoS Pathogens. 6(5): e1000882. 2010.

Dr. Suryawanshi’s Publications