SUMMARY
The research of Abhishek Chandra, Ph.D., M.S., focuses on studying mechanisms of aging, pathological disease conditions and the pathophysiology of skeletal aging during physiological aging. His lab also focuses on characterizing molecular markers of aging and disease to target them therapeutically.
A central focus of Dr. Chandra's research is understanding how mesenchymal lineage cells make fate decisions during pathological conditions and how these changes reshape the bone marrow microenvironment. His lab investigates bone marrow adipocytes — a unique and dynamic adipose cell population — and their interactions with surrounding tissues, including vasculature, osteoclasts, and other cellular components that regulate bone remodeling and skeletal integrity.
Dr. Chandra is particularly interested in finding ways to improve bone quality to prevent fractures that occur as a bystander effect of radiotherapy in patients with cancer. His lab also is exploring basic mechanisms of aging and subcellular changes that affect organ function and potentially healthspan and lifespan.
Overall, Dr. Chandra is highly invested in therapeutic preclinical studies that are performed based on mechanistic studies done to understand disease pathology. These preclinical studies characterize cellular heterogeneity, DNA damage and repair pathways, cellular apoptosis, cellular senescence, and pathways related to the proinflammatory secretome. Dr. Chandra seeks to understand both physiological and pathological age-related disease morbidity.
Focus areas
- Osteoporosis. Dr. Chandra characterizes the cellular and subcellular mechanisms behind age- and disease-related osteoporosis. To translate cellular changes to bone formation, he focuses on understanding subcellular processes such as DNA damage, apoptosis and senescence and the role of proinflammatory signals in both physiological and disease conditions.
- Radiotherapy, bone loss and fractures. Dr. Chandra works extensively to identify therapeutic medicines that can prevent radiation-induced osteoporosis. Dr. Chandra's research focuses on optimizing treatment options for radiation-induced osteoporosis and the resulting fracture healing process with minimal side effects and improved bone quality.
- Mechanisms of aging. Dr. Chandra helps identify the basic mechanisms of cellular and organ aging during the natural physiological process and in disease states. His group also is involved in a drug discovery program that identifies compounds that target cellular mechanisms of aging in vitro. After identification, these compounds undergo in vivo verification of efficacy in preclinical models of aging.
- Mesenchymal stem cell biology. Dr. Chandra focuses his work on therapeutic options to regulate bone marrow adiposity. This research aims to define the cues that regulate mesenchymal cell fate and assign them to an osteogenic or adipogenic fate. Dr. Chandra uses lineage tracing methods to accurately characterize mesenchymal fate and identify the pathways that regulate cell fate.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Chandra's research helps create treatments that prevent osteoporosis, bone fractures and loss of independence in older people who have had cancer treatment. His work focuses on a major gap in cancer care by finding ways to stop bone loss and fractures caused by radiation therapy. This work helps those who have had cancer live better lives over time.
He studies bone health, aging cells and how DNA damage affects the body. He seeks to develop safer and more effective treatments. His research also looks at how certain stem cells change and how fat builds up in bone marrow. This helps scientists find ways to support healthy bone growth. Overall, his work turns basic science about aging into real treatments that help keep bones strong and people mobile — all with better quality of life as they age.