Pankaj Gupta, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine

E-MAIL: [email protected]


Research Interests:

My laboratory works on understanding the structural and functional features of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the context of cytokine and morphogen signaling in various types of stem cells. Current efforts are focused on determining how abnormal heparan sulfates accumulated in mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS-I; Hurler syndrome) contribute to neurological abnormalities, and testing if intra-cerebroventricular stem cell transplantation will ameliorate neuropathology and behavioral abnormalities in an immunodeficient mouse model of MPS-I.


Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Katkish LA, Rangaraju S, Rector TS, Gravely AA, Johnson GJ, Klein MA, Gupta P. Incidence of unprovoked venous thromboembolic events in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leuk Lymphoma. 2018;59(2):509-511.
  • Zylla D, Steele G, Gupta P. A systematic review of the impact of pain on overall survival in patients with cancer. Support Care Cancer. 2017;25(5):1687-1698.
  • Aich A, Gupta P, Gupta K. Could perioperative opioid use increase the risk of cancer progression and metastases? Int Anesthesiol Clin. 2016 Fall;54(4):e1-e16.
  • Shekels LL, Buelt-Gebhardt M, Gupta P. Effect of systemic heparan sulfate haploinsufficiency on steady state hematopoiesis and engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells. Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2015;55(1):3-9.
  • Shekels LL, Colvin Wanshura LE, Xie Y, Nelson MS, Stephenson EJ, Khan SA, Gupta P. The effects of Gremlin1 on human umbilical cord blood hematopoietic progenitors. Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2015;54(1):103-9.
  • Zylla D, Kuskowski MA, Gupta K, Gupta P. Association of opioid requirement and cancer pain with survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Br J Anaesth. 2014 Oct 10.
  • Nguyen J, Luk K, Vang D, Soto W, Vincent L, Robiner S, Saavedra R, Li Y, Gupta P, Gupta K. Morphine stimulates cancer progression and mast cell activation and impairs survival in transgenic mice with breast cancer. Br J Anaesth. 2014;113 Suppl 1:i4-13.
  • Lamba JK, Fridley BL, Ghosh TM, Yu Q, Mehta G, Gupta P. Genetic variation in platinating agent and taxane pathway genes as predictors of outcome and toxicity in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. Pharmacogenomics. 2014;15(12):1565-74.
  • Wang X, Owzar K, Gupta P, Larson RA, Mulkey F, Miller AA, Lewis LD, Hurd D, Vij R, Ratain MJ, Murry DJ. Vatalanib population pharmacokinetics in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS): CALGB 10105 (Alliance). Br J Clin Pharmacol 2014;78(5):1005-13.
  • Zylla D, Gourley BL, Vang D, Jackson S, Boatman S, Lindgren B, Kuskowski MA, Le C, Gupta K, Gupta P. Opioid requirement, opioid receptor expression, and clinical outcomes in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Cancer. 2013;119(23):4103-10.
  • Gupta P, Mulkey F, Hasserjian RP, Sanford BL, Vij R, Hurd DD, Odenike OM, Bloomfield CD, Owzar K, Stone RM, Larson RA; Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. A phase II study of the oral VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor vatalanib (PTK787/ZK222584) in myelodysplastic syndrome: Cancer and Leukemia Group B study 10105 (Alliance). Invest New Drugs. 2013;31(5):1311-20.
  • Abraham A, Habermann EB, Rothenberger DA, Kwaan M, Weinberg AD, Parsons HM, Gupta P, Al-Refaie WB. Adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer in the oldest old: results beyond clinical guidelines. Cancer. 2013;119(2):395-403.
  • Zadroga RJ, Zylla D, Cawcutt K, Musher DM, Gupta P, Kuskowski M, Dincer A, Kaka AS. Pneumococcal pyomyositis: report of 2 cases and review of the literature. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Aug;55(3):e12-7.
  • Weber ML, Vang D, Velho PE, Gupta P, Crosson JT, Hebbel RP, Gupta K. Morphine promotes renal pathology in sickle mice. Int J Nephrol Renovasc Dis. 2012;5:109-18.
  • Nan Z, Shekels L, Ryabinin O, Evavold C, Nelson MS, Khan SA, Deans RJ, Mays RW, Low WC, Gupta P. Intra-cerebroventricular transplantation of human bone marrow-derived multipotent progenitor cells in an immunodeficient mouse model of mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS-I). Cell Transplantation 2012;21(7):1577-93.
Pankaj Gupta