EVCNA Expert Interview Series XI - Dr. Saumya Das
On 23rd December 2022, the Editorial Office of Extracellular Vesicles and Circulating Nucleic Acids (EVCNA) had an exclusive interview with Dr. Saumya Das to talk about his current research projects on extracellular RNAs and their functional role in disease phenotypes. Dr. Das is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a faculty member of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, and the Director of the Resynchronization and Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), USA. The Das laboratory focuses on discovering and characterizing plasma RNAs and extracellular vesicles that may serve as biomarkers for disease phenotypes and processes associated with heart failure and left ventricular remodeling. The lab has developed new bioinformatics tools and techniques to measure extracellular RNAs and study their functional role in animal and cell culture models. They have also studied novel RNA molecules and explored their function and therapeutic targeting in a wide range of diseases. During the interview, Dr. Das shared his research journey, ongoing projects, and progress, and elaborated on the functional role extracellular RNA play in heart failure. In addition, Dr. Das also talked about his future research plans and goals and gave several helpful suggestions for researchers to begin their journey in this field.
Watch the following video for expert insights from Dr. Saumya Das:
Interview Questions:
Question 1: Could you please share with us your career journey and how your research interests have come to focus on cardiovascular and extracellular RNA research?
Question 2: Could you please talk about your current projects?
Question 3: What are the general challenges in characterizing plasma-derived exosomal RNAs?
Question 4: What functional role does extracellular RNA play in heart failure?
Question 5: What difficulties in the field of heart failure and arrhythmias have been addressed by the work you have done at MGH?
Question 6: What research goals do you aim to achieve in the next five years?
Question 7: What pieces of advice will you give to scientists to start their journey in this field?
About Dr. Saumya Das:
Saumya Das, MD, PhD Is A Professor Of Medicine At Harvard Medical School, A Faculty Member Of The Cardiac Arrhythmia Service And The Co-Director Of The Inherited Arrhythmia Service At Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Das completed his undergraduate training at Harvard College, graduating summa cum laude in Biology. He completed his MD-PhD training at Harvard Medical School (in the Health Sciences and Technology pathway) with his PhD in neurobiology. Following that, Dr. Das completed his residency in internal medicine at MGH, and fellowship training in cardiovascular disease and clinical cardiac electrophysiology also at MGH. He completed a research post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Rosenzweig, studying signaling pathways in cardiac electrical remodeling and started his own laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2011. He was recruited to MGH in 2016. His research has focused on signaling pathways in electrical and structural remodeling in models of heart failure and cardiometabolic disease with a focus on extracellular vesicles and their cargo RNAs as biomarkers and mediators of intercellular signaling.
Editor: Yan Lei
Production Editor: Ting Xu
Respectfully Submitted by the Editorial Office of Extracellular Vesicles and Circulating Nucleic Acids
