RESEARCH TEAM

Dr. Koppiker, is a Breast Oncosurgeon and the Medical Director, Orchids Breast Health Center, Pune. He is also the Director, Department of Oncosciences, Jehangir Hospital, Pune. Dr. Koppiker has a keen interest to explore the translational aspect in breast cancer to pave way for novel population specific management strategies. He is a pioneer of Breast Oncoplasty in India and has established the International School of Breast Oncoplasty in collaboration with University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. His primary interests lie in oncoplastic surgery for breast cancers, translational breast cancer research and TNBCs. He has many publications in national and international journals

Ms. Busheri is the CEO of PCCM. With her passion and acumen for social work, Ms. Busheri is instrumental in making PCCM provide free or affordable diagnosis, breast cancer treatment, patient support, and rehabilitation to breast cancer patients and their families from various social and financial strata. She is responsible for full administrative support at CTCR and also oversees the working of the Biobank. She  initiated the Biobank project with the vision that tissue repositories with annotated  patient data have been proven to be of immense importance to understand cancer profiles and identify targeted and personalized therapies

Dr. Joshi is the Senior Scientist at CTCR-PCCM.  She received her M.Sc from the University of Pune and obtained her Ph.D in Immunology from Rutgers University, NJ, USA. She completed her post-doctoral training at Columbia University, NY, USA in Osteoimmunology with a focus on Leukemia blasts. Apart from regular paper publications her research in collaboration with Stanford Medical School, focusing on the role of Vitamin D3 in ameliorating Th17 Autoimmunity went on to get press released. 

At CTCR-PCCM she leads and manages the research department and the clinical research projects. Her current ongoing projects involve assessing the oncological and cosmetic outcomes of oncoplastic surgeries. She also spearheads various multidisciplinary collaborative projects related to breast cancer. Additionally, she also supervises the capacity-building vertical of PCCM-CTCR including the research projects for Masters in Oncoplasty Program that runs in association with University of East Anglia. She also handles all the activities related to the e-learning platform BreastGlobal and its associated journal as well as the new launched RT-PCR course.

Dr. Aijaz Ul Noor is a senior scientist at CTCR-PCCM with a rich scientific background. He received pre-doctoral training at NCBS, Bangalore, under Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, and at Laval University with Prof. Jacques Cote. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Kashmir. Dr. Noor’s postdoctoral work took place at SKIMS, Ohio State University, and FMRI, Gurugram. He has collaborated with renowned laboratories, including those of Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas (Harvard University), Steven Gygi (Harvard University), Susan Celniker (Berkeley Laboratory) and Cellzome Gmbh. His research contributions are published in numerous national and international journals.

At CTCR-PCCM, his research focuses on establishing a clinical database, breast cancer genomics, and assessing surgical approaches to improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient quality of life (QoL).

Dr. Mayurika Lahiri is an Associate Professor at IISER, Pune. She graduated from the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. She joined Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA as a postdoctoral research associate. She later moved to the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, USA as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr Lahiri joined IISER, Pune in 2008. Her laboratory has focused on exploring the role of genome instability during breast cancer initiation, progression and pathogenesis using the 3D breast acinar model.

Pooja Vaid is a Ph.D. scholar at Ashoka University, Sonepat, working under the guidance of Prof L.S. Shashidhara and Dr Madhura Kulkarni. She got her master’s degree in Biotechnology, post which she was trained in Drosophila genetics, using flies as a tumor model. Her thesis work focuses on uncovering the unique cellular and molecular profile of Indian triple-negative breast cancers with prognostic implications. She is also interested in delineating the tumor immune microenvironment modulating the treatment response. Outside the lab, she spends her free time baking and reading.

Pranali is a Senior clinical data coordinator at CTCR. She has completed her graduation in Microbiology from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Following that, she completed a postgraduate diploma in clinical research, data management and pharmacovigilance. Currently, she manages and curates the clinical data at CTCR.

Jisha is a Senior Genetic data coordinator at Prashanti Cancer Care Mission and is working on projects related to the genetics of Breast Cancer. She also works closely with the genetic counsellor, organizes Genetic counseling sessions, curates, analyses, and manages genetic data. She is a gold medalist from Women’s Christian College, where she received her B.Sc. in Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology. She pursued her M.Sc. in Human Genetics from Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai. Her dissertation project was focused on the cell death mechanism of a Siddha formulation in Breast Cancer Cells.

Chitra got her master’s degree from Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She did her masters’ thesis in the field of oral cancer with Dr. Ratika Shrivastava at MSU, Baroda. Previously, she worked at Borek IT Sourcing Pvt Ltd as an Image Annotator for EM images of Drosophila melanogaster neurons. Currently, she is working as a project assistant in the DBT funded project to study the function of YAP in growth factor receptor signalling in breast cancer and their role in growth control and tumorigenesis.

Dr. Kainat Moosa is the Publications and Communications Manager for Prashanti Cancer Care Mission. She is a skilled homeopathic practitioner and a proficient medical content writer. At CTCR-PCCM, her focus is on producing scientific and medical manuscripts, book chapters, and protocols that pertain to breast cancer management and oncoplastic surgery. In addition, Dr. Moosa takes care of the Breast Global platform and the journal by developing and managing content, and also updates the CTCR and Breast Global websites and social media pages.

Dr. Priya Sivadasan is a Research scientist at Prashanti Cancer Care Mission. She received her M.Sc degree in Biotechnology from Kannur University, Kerala and obtained her Ph.D. in Head and Neck Oncology from Mazumdar shaw Centre for Translational Research, Bangalore, where she worked on Salivary transcriptome and proteome for the diagnosis and prognosis of Oral cancer. Her work on Salivary biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Oral cancer got patented as well. Following that, she pursued Training course in Science Journalism, and Post graduate diploma in Intellectual Property Rights. At CTCR-PCCM she is involved in conducting research projects focused on breast cancer, understanding its molecular mechanisms and identifying biomarkers, collaborate with clinicians, manuscript writing and grants writing.

Dr. Vaibhav Jain is a Research Data Coordinator at Prashanti Cancer Care Mission. He has a master’s degree in hospital & healthcare administration from Symbiosis International University and has certifications in Data Analysis from ExcelR Edtech, Bengaluru and Data Visualization from IBM. He has prior experience of working as a Consultant in National Health Mission (M.P.) and in a New Delhi based research organization conducting collaborative, multi-disciplinary studies on high priority global health issues. Currently, overseeing the data within clinical & research databases, essentially updating and managing the databases, and developing Python-based solutions to automate the data management related processes.

Smeeta obtained a B.Sc in Nursing from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, and finished a Certificate course in clinical research. She is in a dual role as a Breast Health Clinical assistant and clinical data coordinator. She is responsible for OPD-Counselling patients on various aspect of their treatment and acts as a liaison between clinic and research departments for co-ordinating clinical data for clinical, epidemiological and biological research projects. 

Ms. Matthew is a Genetics Data Coordinator at Prashanthi Cancer Care Mission, specializing in coordinating genetic counseling for breast cancer patients and their families with a focus on addressing psychosocial needs and managing grief. She also curates, analyzes, and manages genetics and clinical data, contributing to various genetics-related projects. Christina holds an MSc in Biomedical Genetics with a specialization in Genetic Counseling and is BGCI certified. Her experience in pre-test counseling for adult oncology cases has provided her with valuable insights and the skills necessary to offer optimal patient support as a Genetics Data Coordinator.