Sylvester Cancer Researcher and Technology Innovator Named Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

Shanta Dhar, Ph.D., assistant director of Technology and Innovation at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Her research focuses on ways to overcome barriers to precisely target mitochondria – the part of each cell that generates the energy needed for biochemical reactions. Her inventions and innovative contributions in nanomedicine, mitochondria-targeted drug delivery, and platinum-based prodrugs help guide targeted therapies in cancer and other diseases.

Dhar, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is a full member of Sylvester’s Translational and Clinical Oncology Program and co-leader of the Engineering Cancer Cure Program.

She joins Nobel Prize laureates, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine members, and other accomplished academic inventors in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) 2023 class of fellows.

“The NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society,” according to the NAI, which is comprised of more than 4,600 members and offers programs that educate, encourage, inspire and recognize academic inventors. “Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.”

Dhar’s selection reflects her accomplishments in technologies for mitochondrial nanomedicine and the development of prodrugs with modulated mechanisms of action.

“In many diseases, including cancer, metabolic changes, good and bad, happen in the mitochondria. To get to the mitochondria is difficult because of different barriers,” Dhar said. “The main innovation and focus of my work involve developing programmable systems to effectively reach the mitochondria of a specific cell type.”

Dhar and her team recently worked on an anti-cancer compound to help overcome prostate cancer tumors’ resistance to standard chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin. Her team also showed that the compound Platin-L could be loaded in targeted nanoparticles, making the compound available orally. The journal ACS Central Science published the research in July 2023.

Dhar’s innovations go beyond prostate cancer to different cancer types and diseases. Examples include the development of prodrugs for mitochondria-targeted metabolic reprogramming of cancer, the development of orally administrable nanoparticles for viral diseases, and the development of synthetic nanoparticles to replenish lipids to mitochondrial membranes to tackle mitochondrial genetic disorder-mediated diseases.

“Currently, at Sylvester, we are looking at different aspects of cancer that has spread to the brain and how to delay the recurrence of glioblastoma,” Dhar said.

Dhar, who joined Sylvester in 2016 with a vision to promote technology development, said that when she was growing up in India, her father always reminded her that “necessity is the mother of invention.”

“Our main focus growing up in a small town was to try to invent from what we had,” she said. “When I started doing research, my idea was always how to make things simple.”

Dhar began to flourish as an innovator while doing postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she focused on nanocarrier-mediated delivery of platinum-based drugs for their potential applications in cancer.

Federal and non-federal funding agencies have awarded Dhar several grants for translational research, and she has received many honors, including a Department of Defense-funded Prostate Cancer Idea Development Award. Her work in developing controlled-release vehicles to target the mitochondria of cells was recognized with the Targeting Mitochondria 2012 Scientific Contribution Award from the World Mitochondria Society.

A fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Dhar was listed in 2019 as one of the top 5% of authors cited in the Royal Society of Chemistry journals. In 2020, she was awarded the University of Miami’s Women in Academic Medicine Trailblazer Award, and the following year, she was inducted into Sigma XI, the scientific research honor society.

The NAI will formally recognize Dhar and other fellows during the NAI Fellows induction ceremony June 18, 2024, during its annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Read more about Dr. Dhar’s research on the InventUM Blog: https://news.med.miami.edu/dhar-nai-fellow/, and follow @SylvesterCancer on X for the latest in cancer research and care.