Profile

 Anutosh Chakraborty, Ph. D. 

Assistant Professor

Department of Molecular Medicine
The Scripps Research Institute – Scripps Florida
130 Scripps Way, 3B3, Jupiter, FL  33458,   561-228-2426

PERSONAL STATEMENT

My laboratory employs diverse approaches to decipher impacts of small molecules and proteins in cell signaling, metabolism and survival. Our discoveries have implications in various diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. I have extensive experience in small molecule kinases like inositol hexakisphosphate kinase and adenosine kinase and protein kinases such as Akt, AMPK, CK2 and GSK3. One of the major focus of the laboratory is to determine the in vivo significance of a novel signaling molecule, the inositol pyrophosphate (IP7). As a postdoctoral fellow, I demonstrated that the inositol pyrophosphate pathway is involved in various cellular processes (Chakraborty et al. Sci. Signal. 2011). We discovered that mice deleted of the major IP7 synthesizing enzyme IP6K1, are protected from diet induced obesity, fatty liver and insulin resistance. We also demonstrated that IP7 inhibits the insulin sensitizing protein kinase Akt, which promotes insulin resistance in diet induced obese and aged mice (Chakraborty et al. Cell, 2010).

Obesity and type-2 diabetes lead to several co-morbid conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, fatty liver, neurodegeneration and various other diseases. An ideal anti-obesity drug is still elusive, which has a projected market of $3.7 billion. Therefore, we continue to focus on the global and tissues-specific mechanisms by which IP6Ks regulates cell signaling, metabolism and survival in normal, diet induced obese and aged mice. In a recently published work, we discovered that adipocyte-specific IP6K1 deletion reduces diet-induced obesity by enhancing AMPK mediated thermogenesis (Zhu et al. J. Clin. Invest, 2016). Our recent work also reveals that pharmacologic inhibition of the inositol pyrophosphate pathway ameliorates diet induced obesity and insulin resistance by enhancing insulin sensitivity and thermogenic energy expenditure via activation of Akt and AMPK pathways (Ghoshal et al. Mol. Met. 2016 and Zhu et al. J. Clin. Invest. 2016). Therefore, our studies, for the first time, provides in vivo evidence that establishes inositol pyrophosphates as a novel target in metabolic diseases. We continue to work on development of potent and specific IP6K inhibitors to treat obesity, diabetes and presumably other diseases.

A complete biological understanding of the basic cellular processes that regulate differentiation, metabolism and survival is critical to design and develop therapeutic strategies against metabolic and other diseases. Published genome wide association, transcriptomic and proteomic studies by various laboratories together with our ongoing studies, identified that a number of proteins are altered in various diseases, although their roles and regulations are unknown. The long-term goal of the laboratory is to elucidate functions of these proteins, with a hope that one/few would emerge as novel targets in diseases.

EDUCATION

PhD - Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Jadavpur, India, 2005

“Chaperonic Function of a Cyclophilin Homolog from Leishmania donovani”

MSc - Burdwan University, India, 1997

Zoology (First class)

BSc - Burdwan University, India, 1995

Zoology major, Chemistry, Botany (First Class)                               

POSITIONS HELD

Assistant Professor

The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, 2012-present

Research Associate and Instructor

Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland, 2008-2012 

Postdoctoral fellow        

Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland, 2005-2008 

Research Trainee        

Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland, 2004-2005

AWARDS AND HONORS

Ranked 2^nd at the All India Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), 1999 

Awarded ‘Lectureship’ after qualifying the CSIR/UGC Test (NET), 1998

Awarded ‘Research Fellowship’ after qualifying the CSIR/UGC Test (NET),1999

INVITED LECTURES

May, 2016: ‘Regulation of adipose tissue energy metabolism by inositol polyphosphates’ Special Seminar at the Doctoral Program in Chemical and Biological Sciences, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA.

March, 2016: ‘Inositol hexakisphosphate kinase-1: A Novel Target in Metabolic Diseases’ at the Research Triangle Park, NIEHS, NC.

November 2014 (Short talk): ‘Inositol hexakisphosphate kinase-1 regulates lipid accumulation via modulation of adipose tissue browning mediated thermogenesis’ at the Annual Obesity Meeting in Boston, MA.

May 2014: ‘Inositol hexakisphosphate-1 promotes weight gain via regulation of adipose tissue browning and thermogenesis’ at the Aging workshop at The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL.

May 2014: ‘IP6K1 regulation of adipose tissue browning and thermogenesis modulates weight gain in vivo’ at The Henry Ford Heart Institute, Detroit, MI.

April 2014: ‘Inositol hexakisphosphate kinase-1 increases adipose mass via regulation of lipid metabolism in vivo’ at Lipids@Wayne symposium at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.

February 2013: Lecture at the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology department (CMBB), Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL.

May 2012: ‘Regulation of energy metabolism by inositol pyrophosphates’ Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL.

March 2012: ‘Role of Inositol pyrophosphates in diabetes and obesity’ Zoology Department, Burdwan University, India.

March, 2012: ‘Inositol pyrophosphates: An emerging target in diabetes and obesity’ Zoology Department, Viswabharati University, India.

February, 2012: ‘Inositol pyrophosphates regulate multiple cellular processes via Akt inhibition’ Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD.

February, 2012: Inositol hexakisphosphate kinase-1 is a physiologic regulator of Akt/GSK3 signaling pathway’ at Johnson and Johnson, La Jolla, CA.

November, 2011: ‘IP6 kinase 1 regulates multiple physiological processes via glycogen synthase kinase activation’ at Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, IL.

August, 2011: ‘Inositol pyrophosphates in insulin homeostasis and weight gain’ Metabolic Signaling Symposium: From Mechanisms to Medicine’ Biochemistry Department, University of Utah School of Medicine.

October, 2005: ‘Targeting IP6K2-HSP90 in cancer’ at MGI Pharma, Baltimore, MD.

PATENT

Anti-cancer drugs are identified by screening for agents and compounds which inhibit the binding of HSP90 and IP6K2. (WIPO Patent Application WO/2008/073382)

SCIENTIFIC REVIEW COMMITTEE

The Obesity Society (TOS)

American Diabetic Association (ADA)

EDITORIAL BOARD

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Journal of Molecular Biology

Diabetologia

Scientific Reports

Obesity

Journal of Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders and Control

Plos One

MANUSCRIPT REVIEWS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Journal of Molecular Biology

Diabetologia

Scientific Reports

Obesity

Journal of Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders and Control

Plos One

MEMBERSHIP

The Obesity Society

American Diabetic Association

TEACHING ACTIVITY

Designed, directed, lectured and evaluated a course for the TSRI graduate students entitled, ‘Signal Transduction’ in 2016.

Member of the Scripps-Florida Self-Study Committee for improvement of the Graduate Program. 

Awarded ‘Lectureship’ after qualifying the nationwide CSIR/UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) in India in 1998.

MENTORING EXPERIENCE

Postdoctoral

Qingzhang Zhu: March 2013-2017

Sarbani Ghoshal: May 2013-2016

Master’s thesis (Florida Atlantic University)

Darlena Henderson: 2013

• Thesis title: Inositol Hexakisphosphate Kinase-1 stabilizes the lipolytic regulator protein, perilipin1.

Hector Mora: 2015 (Current position: Trainee at NIA, Baltimore, Maryland)

• Thesis title: Inositol pyrophosphate and ubiquitin-proteasomal pathways regulate cell signaling and metabolism.

Ph.D. thesis committee member (TSRI)

Cori N. Booker (Graduate student; Phinney lab)

Research Technician

Ana Rodrigues: February 2013-March 2014

Summer Interns

Biki Kundu: 2016; Ahana Ghosh: 2016; Arushi Thapar: 2015; Michael Rohr: 2013; Brede Skillings: 2013; Sean Crary: 2013

High School Student

Robert Halfon: 2015