Amitava Adhikary

Research Associate Professor
Physical Chemistry, Radiation Chemistry of Biomolecules
246 Science and Engineering Building
(248) 370 2094 (Office)
(248) 370-4996 (lab)

Degree: Ph.D. 1998, University of Delhi

Research Interests:

• Elucidation of the mechanistic pathways involved in direct interaction of radiation with DNA,
• Formation of site-specific aminyl radical via dissociative electron attachment to azidotnucleosides and to their derivatives (nucleotides, oligomers etc.) as well as subsequent reactions of these aminyl radicals.
• Elucidation of mechanisms of radiomodifying actions by minor-groove-ligands, e.g., bis-benzimidazole derivative Hoechst 33258 and its analogs
• Elucidation of mechanisms of radiomodifying actions by nanoceria.

Recent publications:

Adjei, D.; Reyes, Y.; Kumar, A.; Ward, S.; Denisov, S. A.; Alahmadi, M.; Sevilla, M. D.; Wnuk, S. F.; Mostafavi, M.; Adhikary, A. Pathways of Dissociative Electron Attachment Observed in 5- and 6-Azidomethyluracil Nucleosides: Nitrogen (N2) Elimination vs. Azide anion (N3¯) Elimination. J. Phys. Chem. B 2023, 127 (7), 1563 – 1571. 

Wei, F.; Neal, C. J.; Sakthivel, T. S.; Fu, Y.; Omer, M.; Adhikary, A.; Ward, S.; Ta, K. M.; Moxon, S.; Molinari, M.; Yarmolenko, S. M.; Cheong, V. S.; Orlovskaya, N.; Ghosh, R.; Seal, S.; Coathup, M. A novel approach for the prevention of ionizing radiation-induced bone loss using a designer multifunctional cerium oxide nanozyme. Bioactive Mater. 2023, 21, 547 – 565. Highlighted by NSF

Ma, J.; Bahry, T.; Denisov, S.; Adhikary, A.; Mostafavi, M. Quasi-free Electron-mediated Radiation Sensitization by C5-Halopyrimidines. J. Phys. Chem. A 2021, 125 (36), 7967–7975. 

Halliwell, B.; Adhikary, A.; Dingfelder, M.; Dizdaroglu, M. Hydroxyl radical is a significant player in oxidative DNA damage in vivo. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021.

Mudgal, M.; Dang, T. P.; Sobczak, A. J.; Lumpuy, D. A.; Dutta, P.; Ward, S.; Ward, K.; Alahmadi, M.; Kumar, A.; Sevilla, M. D.; Wnuk, S. F.; Adhikary, A. Site of Azido Substitution in the Sugar Moiety of Azidopyrimidine nucleosides Influences the Reactivity of Aminyl Radicals Formed by Dissociative Electron Attachment. J. Phys. Chem. B, 2020, 124 (50), 11357 – 11370. (Cover illustration) Featured in the twitter handle of RRS

Verma, A.; Adhikary, A.; Woloschak, G.; Dwarakanath, B. S.; Rao, V. L. Papineni. A combinatorial approach of a polypharmacological adjuvant 2-deoxy-D-glucose with low dose radiation therapy to quell the cytokine storm in COVID-19 management. Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 2020.

Kaczmarek, R.; Ward, S.; Debnath, D.; Jacobs, T.; Stark, A. D.; Korczyński, D.; Kumar, A.; Sevilla, M. D.; Denisov, S. A.; Shcherbakov, V.; Pernot, P.; Mostafavi, M.; Dembinski, R.; Adhikary, A. One Way Traffic:  Base-to-backbone Hole Transfer in Nucleoside Phosphorodithioates. Chem. Eur.J., 2020, 26 (43), 9495-9505. (Front cover illustration and profile)

Ma, J.; Denisov, S.; Adhikary, A.; Mostafavi, M. Comment un électron induit un dommage oxydatif dans l’ADN. l'Actualité Chimique, 2020, 450, 13 – 18.

Ma, J.; Kumar, A.; Muroya, Y.; Yamashita, S.; Sakurai, T.; Denisov, S. A.; Sevilla, M. D.; Adhikary, A.; Seki, S.; Mostafavi, M. Quasi-free electron attachment to nucleoside in solution: excited anion radical formation and its dissociation. Nature Communications, 2019, 10, article number: 102, pp 1-7.

Wen, Z.; Peng, J.; Tuttle, P.; Ren,Y.; Garcia, C.; Debnath, D.; Rishi, S.; Hanson, C.; Ward, S.; Kumar, A.; Liu, Y.; Zhao, W.; Glazer, P. M.; Liu, Y.; Sevilla, M. D.; Adhikary, A.; Wnuk, S. F. (2018) Electron-mediated Aminyl and Iminyl Radicals from C5-Azido-Modified Pyrimidine Nucleosides Augment Radiation Damage to Cancer Cells. Org. Lett., 2018, 20, 7400 – 7404.

Ma, J.; Denisov, S. A.; Marignier, J-L.; Pernot, P.; Adhikary, A.; Seki, S.; Mostafavi, M. (2018) Ultrafast electron attachment and hole transfer following ionizing radiation of aqueous uridine monophosphate. J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2018, 9, 5105 – 5109.

Ma, J.; Wang, F.; Denisov, S. A.; Adhikary, A.; Mostafavi, M. (2017) Reactivity of Prehydrated Electrons towards Nucleobases and Nucleotides in Aqueous Solution. Science Advances, 2017, 3, e1701669, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701669.

For complete list of publications and cv, see his personal web page.