Meet the Lab

Dr. Soma Sengupta is a neuro-oncologist, physician-scientist, integrative oncologist and an academic leader focused on designing and studying therapeutics, designing digital technologies with AI and designing clinical trials.  Soma has a long-standing interest in clinically relevant membrane transport proteins. She completed both her doctoral research and medical training at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, U.K.). During her PhD on a fungal transporter, she conducted research at the CNRS, Strasbourg France. During post-doctoral research, she worked on an ATPase at Yale University under Carolyn Slayman. Soma also completed research training in immunology focused on the TAP transporter with Paul Lehner at the CIMR (Cambridge, U.K.). Clinically, Soma completed a residency (Neurology) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a fellowship (neuro-oncology) in the Partners program (Mass General/Dana-Farber/Bringham Women’s). Further, she completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine from the Andrew Weil Center at the University of Arizona. As well as a clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology, she completed a research fellowship with Scott Pomeroy and Frances Jensen at Boston Children’s Hospital focused on understanding the contribution of the GABA-A receptor in an aggressive subtype of pediatric brain cancer medulloblastoma. This was the beginning of her fascination with neurotransmitter receptors and cancer. 

Dr. Daniel Pomeranz Krummel is a research-focused faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   He has a long-standing research interest in gene expression mechanisms. He completed his doctoral research at Yale University under Sidney Altman (Nobel 1989) studying an RNA enzyme, ribonuclease P. During post-doctoral research, he extended his interest in RNA-protein interactions and gene expression at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, U.K.) under Kiyoshi Nagai. During this period, he determined the first structure of a U snRNP complex, obtained by x-ray crystallography (Pomeranz Krummel et al., 2009). While maintaining an interest in RNA structure-function, his interests broadened to include translational neuro-oncology. He became fascinated with the contribution of neurotransmitter receptors to cancer development and exploring how they could be a therapeutic vulnerability. Daniel is a faculty member at the medical school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Dr. Kerry Roby Jr. is a cancer biologist and project manager in the SoDa Lab. His primary research focus is on the tumor microenvironment and on understanding the molecular and functional properties of perivascular astrocyte and their contributions to blood brain barrier development and in cancer progression. Dr. Roby grew up in a small, rural town in Mississippi and is a first-generation college student along with his older sister.

Dr. Roby joined theSoDa Lab from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he completed his post doc fellowship in the McCarty Lab under the direction of Dr. Joseph McCarty.

Caroline is a research technician in the lab. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in May of 2023 with a double major in Biological Sciences and Mathematics. Her research in the lab is focused on the immune response elicited from the administration of the drug, AM-101, and how it can enhance the effectiveness of other standard-of-care cancer treatments. The future, Caroline intends to attend medical school.

Colin is a 3rd-year neuroscience major with an entrepreneurship minor on the pre-med track from Cincinnati, Ohio. Colin’s research focuses on the cellular mechanisms behind AM101 and the targeting of cell signaling pathways for translational therapeutics. Under the mentorship of David Plas, Colin has gained extensive experience with 3D tumor spheroids and confocal microscopy at the University of Cincinnati. The future, medical school most likely following a gap year.